






















Gass_ _ 

Book_ 

THE EDWIN C. DINWIDDIE 
COLLECTION OF BOOKS ON 
TEMPERANCE AND ALLIED SUBJECTS 

(PRESENTED BY MRS. DINWIDDIE) 








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THE 


FOUR PILLARS 




E/VLPERANCE. 


BY 

JOHN W. KIETON, 

ATTIHOK OF “ BUT TOUR OWlT CHERRIES,” KTO., ETO. 


NEW YORK : 

NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY AND PUBLICATION 
68 READE STREET. 

1883. 








4'//V 


Gift 

MRS. Edwin C. Dinwiddle 
Aug. 6. 1935. 


CONTENTS. 


I.—PILLAE OF KEASON. 

1.— General Introduction : The subject opened. 

1. The extent of the vice intemperance. 

2. The real nature of the cause. 

3. The only sure and certain cure. 

n.—T he value of the principles of Temperanch 

CONSISTS IN 

1. Its simplicity. 

2. Its efficacy. 

3. Its advantages. 

in. —Temperance properly defined. 

1. The law of cause and effect. 

2. With the beginning of drinking, the consequences 

begin. 

3. Drunkenness is caused by drinking. 

4. It does so by perverting the judgment. 

5. It does so by developing self-conceit. 

Objection 1.—“I don’t see why I should give up 

my little because some abuse it.” 



4 


CONTENTS. 


Objection 2.—“If I thought it did me barm I would 
leave it off.” 

Objection 3.—“But I really can’t do anything.” 
Objection 4.—“I believe in moderation.” 

Objection 5.—“If I saw it to be my duty.” 
Objection 6.—“ I believe I’m right.” 

6. That is best which does the most good. 

7. The rival lines. 

8. The command of God to be sober ; involving 

man’s best interests. 

9. Concluding appeal to Christians, and Ministers in 

particular. 

1. That it is a good cause, 

2. Then all good people should belong to it. 


n.—PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 

The darkness of thirty years back. 

1. Science has settled the character of the drink. 

2. The laws of physiology. 

3. The laws of health and life. 

4. Is alcohol food ? 

6. Analysis of the drinks by chemistry. 

6. Does it help digestion ? 

7. What becomes of alcohol when taken into the body ? 

The various theories during the last thirty years. 

8. Alcohol proved to be a poison. 



CONTENTS. 


6 


9. Alcotol injures tlie body. 

10. Alcohol, its general effects upon the body. 

11. The recent experiments with alcohol. 

12. Is alcohol useful as a medicine? Testimony of 
various medical men. 


ni.—PILLAE OF SCEIPTUEE. 

1. The works of God and the Word of God. 

2. What the Bible was sent to teach. 

3. Nature and revelation both agree. 

1. How is it that ministers are so opposed to the move¬ 
ment? 

5. The word Wine, its proper meaning. 

APPLICATION OP FIVE GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

1. Ood appoints nothing of which sin is to he the legitU 

mate and proper result. Illustrations. 

The marriage of Cana. 

The teaching of symbols. 

2. Christianity seeks to make every object and relation an 

instrument of righteousness. Illustrations. 

Theatres, horse-racing, card-playing. 

3. Whatever tends to make men happy, becomes a fulfil- 

ment of the will of God, and vice versa. lilusttadons. 
Soup-kitchens, ragged-schools, drinking-fottiitains. 
dining-halls, &c. 



6 


CONTENTS. 


4. Ood will not do for us that which we can do for our¬ 
selves. Illustrations. 

Does intemperance spring from the depravity of 
the human heart ? 

“ Drunkards are just the people who ought to 
sign.” 

“ The grace of God will keep a man sober.” 

Lord Palmerston and the cholera. 

The raising of Lazarus, &c., &c. 

6. That when a good thing has become perverted^ it is 
right that it should be destroyed. Illustrations. 

The good creature of God (? ) 

The world destroyed. 

The language of man taken aw^ay. 

The brazen serpent. 

Strong drink not a creature of God. 


IV.—PILLAE OF EXPEEIENCE. 

1. Experience teaches that abstinence is beneficial to 

health. 

2. Experience teaches that abstinence prolongs life. 

3. Experience teaches that drinking shortens life. 

4. Experience teaches that heat can be endured better 

wdthout intoxicating drinks.' 

6. Experience teaches that cold can be endured better 
without alcoholic drinks. 



CONTENTS. 7 

6. Experience teaches that bodily labor can be best per¬ 

formed without alcoholic drinks. 

7 . Experience teaches that mental labor can be per¬ 

formed better without intoxicating drinks. 

8. Experience teaches that the influence of abstinence 

is for good, while that of drinking is for evil. 

9. This also seen in temperance attaching itself to the 

true and the good. 

(a) Temperance invariably assists the progress of 
religion. 

(&) Temperance, handmaid to religion. 

(c) Intemperance always a hinderance. 

(d) Intemperance robs the Minister of the fruit of 

his labor. * 

(e) Drink’s influence on the Sunday school 
(/) Drink’s influence on the Missionaries’ work. 

(g) Temperance influence on Home Missions. 

10 . Drink has been the curse of aU classes. 


1 



I. 

THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


“ Come, now, and let us reason together." —Isaiah i. 18. 

♦ 

“Head, not to contradict and confute, not to believe 
and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse ; 
but to weigh and consider.” —Lord Bacon. 

OED BACON also justly observes, “ that 
the great end of all study should be 
first to obtain correct opinions, and 
then to turn them to.some useful pur¬ 
pose.” But the inquirer after truth 
may say, “Where am I to obtain the 
necessary information in order that I may 
form ‘correct opinions,’ and arrive at proper 
conclusions?” Here at once we perceive the 
value of the temperance movement, for by its 
agency inquiry has been awakened, thought 
stirred up, information collected and scattered 
far and wide, so that we are now in a far bet- 




10 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

ter position of ascertaining the real merits of 
this subject, than were our forefathers, who 
waged such successful warfare against slavery, 
corn laws, and other kindred evils of bygone 
days. 

Three things during the last thirty years 
have been thoroughly and faithfully investi¬ 
gated. 

1st.—The EXTENT of the vice, Intemperance. 
The alarming fact has been discovered that 
there is scarcely a single family to he found hut 
whMt has suffered, directly or indirectly, from its 
ravages. 

2nd. —Such being the case, it became of the 
utmost importance, in the next place, to be 
enlightened as to the real nature of the cause, 
and this has resulted in the discovery that 
intoxicating liquors of all kinds are in them^ 
selves had. Hence, so long as they continue to 
be used, they will of necessity be a curse to the 
Church, as well as to the world, producing 
“ evil, and that continually.” 

3rcZ .—The only sure and certain cure that can 
meet the necessities of the case is found to be 
in TOTAL ABSTINENCE /ro7n dll intoxicating drink, 
so far as each individual is concerned, together 
with the TOTAL and immediate prohibition hy 


THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


11 


the State of the manufacture and sale of such 
drink hy Jaw. 

The value of the principles of the Temper¬ 
ance Society have been found to consist in— 

Is^. —Its SIMPLICITY. So clearly is this the 
case, that we find children even comprehend 
it; hence thousands of “ Bands of Hope” have 
been formed, in which are to be found boys 
and girls of all ages. 

2nd.—Its Efficacy. The efforts of the 
Temperance Society are directed, Fi 7 'st, to 
prevent sober people from becoming drunkards, 
upon the old plan that “prevention is better 
than cure the Second, to reclaim such as 
have become victims to the vice of intemper¬ 
ance. Third. To preserve those who are 
exposed either to fall on the one hand, or those 
who have fallen on the other. 

^rd.—Its ADVANTAGES to individuals, families, 
schools, churches, towns, countries, &c., can¬ 
not be over-estimated, especially when con¬ 
trasted with the vis-advantages which have 
always attended the use of intoxicating liquors, 
by whatever name or color known. 

Before, however, we proceed any further, 
let us endeavor to settle the meaning of this 
word temperance, for unless we are agreed as 


12 THE FOUR PILLARS OP TEMPERANCE. 

to the word we employ, we are not likely io 
arrive at a proper understanding of its appli¬ 
cation. To use the language of Sylvester 
Graham :— 

“ In every matter worthy of the serious con¬ 
sideration of the human mind, truth should 
be the grand object of inquiry, and, in order 
to arrive at truth most clearly and most con¬ 
clusively, first principles should always, so far 
as possible, be ascertained and set forth, as 
the general foundation of all argument on any 
question discussed ; and this is particularly 
necessary in all matters of controversy : be¬ 
cause, without settling the first principles as 
the basis of reasoning, controversy rarely 
amounts to anything more than a war of 
words, and seldom serves to advance the cause 
of truth. For these reasons we shall make it 
our first business to ascertain, and set forth as 
clearly and as fully as possible, those first 
principles pertaining to the subject, on which 
the validity and conclusiveness of all our 
subsequent reasoning will depend. If the 
first principles on which we base the argu¬ 
ment are true, and all our reasoning is in 
legitimate accordance with those principles, 
then our conclusions must be true, whether 


THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


13 


they agree with the opinions of others or 
not.’^ (1) 

True temperance, or moderation, we define 

to be, “ THE MODERATE USE OF ALL GOOD THINGS, 
BUT TOTAL ABSTINENCE FROM ALL BAD THINGS.” 

Dr. South says :—“It is an ancient artifice of 
fraud, to prepossess the mind by representing 
had things under a good name.” We shall, 
therefore, proceed to strengthen our position 
by reference to various sources competent to 
give us information. 

“Temperance —Moderation, particulary ha¬ 
bitual moderation, as regards the indulgence of 
the natural appetites and passions, restrained 
or moderate indulgence.”—Dr. Webster, Dic¬ 
tionary, 1806. 

“ Temperance— noun. Moderation, espe¬ 
cially in drink. Abstinence, adjective —enjoining 
or practising abstinence in the use of spirituous 
liquors.”— Dr. Worcester's Dictionary, 1856. 

“ He who knows what is good and chooses it, 
who knows what is had and avoids it, is learned 
and temperate.”— Socrates. 

“ Moderation is a subduer of our desires to 
the obedience of reason.”— English GentlemaUy 
1633. 


(1) “ Philosophy of Sacred History.' 

2 



14 THE EOtiR HTLliAES OH TEMEEHAHCE, 

“Temperance is the habit by which -we 
abstain from- all things that tend to our destruc¬ 
tion ; intemperance the contrary vice. As for 
the eommon opinion, that virtue consisteth in 
mediocrity, and vice in extremes, I see no 
ground for it. In gifts, it is not the sum that 
maketh liberality, but the reason. And so in 
all other virtues and vices.”—fib6&es, De Cor- 
pore Politico (1640). 

“ The ‘ temperate’ man of the ^^ew Testament 
is the man who has power in himself over him¬ 
self. Hence it follows that the temperance of 
Scripture is a most comprehensive virtue, 
embracing the whole scope of that internal 
government which, under grace, it is our duty 
to exercise over our own propensities.”— Gur¬ 
ney’s “ Thoughts on Habit and Disciplined 

“True and universal temperance is the 
spirit of obedience to all the laws of man’s 
manifold and miraculous nature. — -W^estmin- 
ster Review, 1852. 

“ Moderation, then, in its widest use, signi¬ 
fies proper sELF-po ucrmncnf-— -often, therefore, 
the denial of appetite—while Temperance de¬ 
notes a proper and proportioned use of things, 
and of course restraint of evil impulses, and 
abstinence from improper objects.”— Dr. Lees’ 
Works, Tol. i. p. 2. 


THE PILLAR OE EEASOR 


15 


Put into a syllogistic shape, the definition 
stands thus :— 

1. Dietetic temperance consists in using the 
good and abstaining from the bad. 

2. Alcoholic drinks are not good, but bad. 

3. Therefore the rule of temperance is absti¬ 
nence from them. 

“Nothing,” says Mr. Swainson, “can exist 
if it do not combine all the conditions which 
render its existence possible ; the different 
parts must be co-ordinated in such a manner 
as to render the total being possible, not only 
in itself, but in its relations to those which 
surround it; and the analysis of tlxese condi¬ 
tions often leads to general laws, as clearly 
demonstrated as those which result from cal¬ 
culation or from experience.” (1) 

A child easily understands the truism, that 
if we never drink we can’t get di*unk, just as 
it comprehends the advice of its mother, 
“ don’t touch the fire, and you can’t get burnt.’ 
And yet how difficult it is to convince most 
people, that the readiest way to bring about 
the entire sobriety-of the nation would be for 
each to leave off drinking. The very simpli¬ 
city of the means proves a barrier to its general 
recejition, and yet reason, if allowed to rule^ 


(1) “Study of.Natural History,” p. 85. 




16 THE FOUE PILLAKS OF TEMPEKANCE. 

woukl teach that there must be a cause, if we 
see an effect ; if, for instance, the inhabitants 
of a certain street manifested signs of sickness 
all of the same character, the medical man 
would instinctively ask what they had been 
eating or drinking? and proceed carefully to 
examine the water, &c. Should he discover 
that owing to the pijjes, the water was charged 
with poisonous material, he would at once 
order instantaneous abstinence, or his medicine, 
good as it might be in itself, would do but 
little towards the cure of the disease, while the 
cause remained in full force. It is the same 
with regard to other things with which we are 
familiar; we at once feel compelled to ask, 
‘‘ What is the reason?” Now there is an admit¬ 
ted axiom in every department of human 
science, which will apply with equal force to 
the matter before us, viz. :—that an effect can¬ 
not exist without a cause, and that a cause 
does not operate without being applied. Let 
these admitted propositions form the basis of 
our reasoning upon this subject, and let us try 
and ascertain, if we can, whether intemperance 
is an inevitable thing over which we can exercise 
no control, or, ivhether it is one of those condi¬ 
tions ivhich is the legitimate eesult of an 
ADEQUATE CAUSE ; by this means we shall be the 


THE PILLAR OF EELSON. 


17 


bettor enabled to deal witb it in an efficient 
manner, and “stay the progress of the foe,” 
h)r, in the words of an able writer, “Provi¬ 
dence has gifted man with reason; to his 
reason, therefore, is left the choice of his food 
and drink;, and not to instinct, as among the 
lower animals. It thus becomes his duty to apply 
his reason to the regulation of his diet, to shun 
excess in quantity, and what is noxious in 
quality ; to adhere, in short, to the simple and 
natural: among which the bounty of his 
Maker has afforded him an ample selection, 
and beyond which, if he deviates, sooner or 
later he will suffer the penalty.” (1) 

“From reason, or revelation, or from both 
together, it appears to* be God Almighty’s 
intention that the productions of the earth 
should be applied 1:0 the sustentation of human 
life. Consequently, all waste and misappli¬ 
cation of these productions is contrary to the 
Divine intention and will, and therefore wrong, 
for the same reason that any other crime is 
so : such as destroying, or suffering to perish, 
great jiart of an article of human pi-ovision, in 
order to enhance the price of the remainder, 
or diminishing the breed of animals by a 
wanton or improvident consumption of the 


(1) Prout. 



18 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

young. To this head may also be referred 
what is the same evil in a . smaller way, the 
expenditure of human food on superfluous 
dogs or horses ; and, lastly, the reducing the 
quantity in order to alter the quality, and to alter 
it generally for the worse, as the distillation of 
spirits from bread corn.” (1) 

We are afraid, in many cases, that, in the 
words of the celebrated Mr. Mill (when 
writing on wages):— 

“It is not against reason that the argument 
has to struggle, but against a feeling of dislike 
which will only reconcile itself to the unwel¬ 
come truth, when every device is exhausted 
by which the recognition of that truth can bo 
evaded.” (2) 

If we “ begin with observations, go on with 
experiments, and, supported by both, try to 
find out a law and causes” (3) (for that which 
begins to exist must have a cause), we shall 
soon arrive at the conclusion, that with the 
beginning of drinking, is the beginning of the 
consequences; hence it is important to have 
the mind clearly enlightened as to the real 
nature and effects of these drinks. Education 

(1) Paley’s “Moral Pbilosopliy.” 

(2) “Political Economy,” 5tli edition, Vol. L, p. 430. 

(3) Lord Bacon. 



THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


19 


in the wrong way does more harm than ignor¬ 
ance, inasmuch as we find by experience that 
it is harder to unlearn than to learn ; this is 
especially the case where appetite gets in the 
way ; and still more so, while using an article 
that is so “seductive in its beginning and 
dangerous in its course” as is alcoholic drink. 
Even Mr. Johnston admits, in his ‘ Chemistry 
of Common Life,’ that “ the peculiar danger 
attendant upon the consumption of intoxicating 
drinks, arises from their extreme seductiveness, 
and from the all hut unconquerable strength of 
the drinking habit when once formed. Their 
peculiar malignity appears in becoming the 
parent and nu^se of every kind of suffering, 
immorality and crime.’* In proof of this we 
often hear it said, “ Drink, hut keep sober !”— 
while the advice of reason and temperance is, 
“ Don’t drink, and remain sober !” This plan 
is at once easy and safe, while the opposite is 
both difficult and dangerous. This leads us 
to notice that— 

Drunkenness is caused hy drinking: —“ The 
great discovery,” says Dr. Edgar, “ which now 
flashes across the world with lightning’s 
brightness is, that the temperate (or moderate) 
drinkers are the chief promoters of drunkenness. 
'Who give respectability to the whole of the 


20 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

customs and practices wliich constitute the 
school of (li'unkenness ? The temperate. What 
is the chief apology for drunkenness? The 
moderate drinking of the temperate.'’ Hence, if 
ever the evil is to be etfectually cured, we 
must get the moderate drinkers to change their 
habits. Could this be done, the evil would 
soon die a natural death. This will be still 
more apparent if we ask, “ What is essential to 
sobriety V’ To this many answers are made by 
drinkers, but the one answer of reason and 
temperance is, abstain from the drink which 
alone produces drunkenness. 

If, therefore, drink is the one thing essential 
to drunkenness, and we wish to find a short 
and easy method to put an end to the effect, 
we must stop drinking. Let it ever be re¬ 
membered that opinions or habits cannot alter 
the nature of an action, whether it be in itself 
light or wrong. Drunkenness has been too 
long regarded rather as a misfortune to be 
lamented, than a crime to be avoided. Men 
seem to forget that each act of virtue makes 
the doer more virtuous, and each act of vice 
more vicious ; and as man is responsible for 
his thoughts as well as his actions, he incurs 
the praise or the blame attending his decision 
either way. As Dr. Gumming says, “the fact 


THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


21 


is, you must never forget that we are responsi¬ 
ble for the conclusions we come to upon the 
evidence submitted to us personally, not for 
what other men think or say. . . . Majorities 
and minorities have nothing to do with what 
is truth and what is error. We must take evi¬ 
dence and facts as they are submitted to us, 
and come to a conclusion in the sight of God, 
for which we are responsible to God.” (1) 

But we go even further. If it can be shown 
(as we think we shall be able to do very clearly) 
that these drinks in their very nature are in¬ 
jurious to health, then to use them, in however 
moderate a quantity for self-gratification, be¬ 
comes an act of intemperance. For what is 
di-unkenness but the voluntary and entire sub¬ 
jection of the rational and mora,! part of man 
to his animal nature ? Therefore, whenever 
we see the sensual appetites and passions of 
men triumphing over the dictates of their rea¬ 
son and moral sensibilities, we see illustrated 
that defect of character we call moral infirmity, 
and to which it is chiefly owing that the first 
step is taken in the career of vice and folly, 
and as there are no vices the allurements of 
which are so numerous and fascinating as 
those which conduce to intemperate drinking. 


(1) “ Satan an Angel of Light,’ 



22 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

how important that we shun the use of an 
article the direct tendency of which is to 
weaken the power to will^ and the wish to OA^t; 
for it is the very nature of these drinks gradu¬ 
ally to entwine their influence around man, 
until they almost, so to speak, force him to he 
willing to submit to their destructive power. 

At the same time, it should be borne in 
mind that we cannot believe what is untrue 
without suffering the consequences more or 
less, and this is especially the case when our 
■wrong notions lead to actions. This will be 
seen from the testimony of Dr. G. Wilson, 
who says :— 

“ A chief peril, however, in the moderate use 
of intoxicating drinks, in whatever way in¬ 
duced, or upon whatever plea adopted, lies in 
its being, but too frequently, merely a state of 
transition towards the formation of propen¬ 
sities of a more marked and fatal character. 
The delusive gratification following the first 
draughts incites to their repetition, and as the 
enjoyment, by a natural law, recedes farther 
and farther from the reach of the victim, he is 
induced to pursue it with stronger efforts, and 
with greater ardor, as if unwilling to abandon 
the hope that might still be renewed in its 
original purity. He cannot long appeal to his 


THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


23 


reason, for the course which he follows soon 
annihilates reason ; or, should his better judg¬ 
ment occasionally interfere, it can lay no hold 
upon that weak facility which grows upon his 
disposition and renders him an easy though 
still, to a certain extent, an unwilling prey to 
his temptations. Not that he is, as yet, fully 
conscious of his danger ; for the usages of 
society combine to surround him with their 
allurements, and shed a false glare over the 
real darkness that extends before him. How 
many a gallant youth who could recognize this 
as the true picture of the morning of his life, 
before his manhood has reached its noon, has 
fallen a victim and a wreck ?”(1) 

One of the first stages of intemperance is 
witnessed in the anxious and uneasy feelings 
which even moderate drinkers invariably experi¬ 
ence, on occasions when they have accidentally 
been deprived of their accustomed stimulus. 
Sensations of this nature present undoubted 
evidence of the existence and development of 
the inebriate propensity. Indeed, the great 
danger of moderate drinking consists in the 
inability to ascertain at what precise period in 
the progress of the vice this unnatural sensa¬ 
tion first commences. . . . The moderate use 


(1) Wilson’s “Pathology. 



24 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

of intoxicating liquors, both in a moral and 
physical point of view, is the high road to in- 
temperance.’' (1) “If,” remarks Paley, “we are 
in so great a degree passive under our habits, 
where, it is asked, is the exercise of virtue, the 
guilt of vice, or any use of moral and religious 
knowledge? I answer,” he says, “in the 
forming and contracting of these habits. Thence 
results a rule of considerable importance, viz., 
that many things are to he done and abstained 
from, solely for the sake of habit.” (2) 

“ What is all this drinking but a poisoning 
of the brain and consequent perversion of the 
human mind, a debasement of that higher 
reason and those moral faculties which God 
has given us to distinguish us from the brutes 
—and that, too, by taking in our hand an 
extraneous and material poison and wilfully 
and knowingly introducing it to our stomach, 
vdthout any plea of necessity whatever? I 
ask the reUgious man if such perversion of 
reason and morality—God’s greatest gifts to 
man—is not a sin ? I ask the merely moral 
man if such perversion of man’s greatest attri¬ 
butes is not one of the meanest and most de¬ 
grading species of sensuality in which poor 

(1) Dr. Grindrod’s “Baccliiis.” 

(2) Paley’s “ Moral Philosophy.” 



THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


25 


human nature ever wallowed. Yes, this ‘ ex¬ 
hilaration’ is neither more nor less than incip¬ 
ient drunkenness, and differs only in degree, 
not in kind, from the state of the drunkard 
who rolls in the gutter! You may rest assured 
that, if you apply the methods of scientific 
reasoning in the strictest form—viz., .observa¬ 
tion, experiment, and comparison—whether 
you proceed inductively or deductively, you 
will and must always arrive at the same inevita¬ 
ble conclusion—that alcohol is a brain poison 
in quality, quantity being only the measure of 
its effects; and that this fact is the true cause 
of most of the personal, and of all the social 
and national evils it produces—and these are 
‘legion.’ What moral rules and practical 
deductions and conclusions, then, ought we to 
aiTive at from these premises ? The answer is 
logically and morally inevitable—that total 
abstinence from alcohol and all other brain qwi-- 
sons, as articles of diet and refreshment, is an 
imperative and personal duty, and that the 
total and immediate prohibition of their manu¬ 
facture and sale for such purposes, is the duty 
of the State. Ke'collect that the fact of alcohol 
being a brain poison does not depend upon 
the oqnnion of any man or set of men ; it is an 
undeniable and established scientific fact, and, 
3 


2G THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

therefore, out of the domain of, and infinitely 
superior to, all and every opinion and mere 
authority of any man or set of men.” (1) 

The laws of cause and effect are the same in 
their operations in the mechanical, moral, 
physical, and spiritual world; if right seed is 
sown, we may reasonably expect right fruit to 
appear ; intemperance appears to us not to be 
so much itself a sin, as the result of the sin of 
drinking; this principle was even acknow¬ 
ledged by a writer in ‘'Blackwood” some 
time since ; he remarked :— 

“ Wine ! wine ! whose praises are clamor¬ 
ously sung around the festive board, and whose 
virtues supply the song with brilliant thoughts 
and ardent syllables, what need of eloquence 
and verse to sound thy fame, while murder 
and seduction bear ghostly witness to thy po¬ 
tency ?” 

Wisely, therefore, has it been said, “to 
know the laws which inhere in all things is the 
highest glory, the .completest triumph of the 
intellect.” (2) 

We have been told that “the glory of human 
nature consists in its intellectual and moral 
capabilities ; in the ability to discover truth, 


(1) Dr. J. M. M’CuUoch. 

(2) Rev, B. Brown. 



THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


27 


in the capacity of disciiminating, and the 
power of choosing, between right and wrong 

but INTOXICATING DRINKS PERVERT THE JUDGMENT. 

“ At the beginning of intoxication, the ideas 
flow Avith a more than natural rapidity ; self- 
love soars above our prudence, and shows itself 
openly ; we lay aside the scale of deliberation, 
the slow, pondering, measuring, and compar¬ 
ing instmments of judgment. In this condi¬ 
tion every man is a hero to himself; he feels 
as he wishes, and the state of his mind is 
betrayed by boastings and falsehoods, by pre¬ 
tensions to abilities beyond his possessions, 
and by a delusive contempt for the evils that 
beset him.” (1) How dangerous, then, must be 
the practice of introducing them into the 
system, and thus for the time robbing man of 
the power of “ choosing between right and wrong^ 
The brain is “ the laboratory of wonders, 
the very masterpiece of the Almighty,” en¬ 
trusted to man to use well, and by its aid 
secure all the advantages of a reasonable and 
accountable being ; now, if “conscientiousness 
and the reasoning faculties distinguish us fi*om 
the brutes, what right have we to use a thing 
that even in the smallest degree perverts and 
degrades the moral and intellectual facul- 


(1) Sir A. Carlyle. 



28 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

ties?”(l) And should we fail to employ these 
powers in the right direction, this neglect will 
bring its own punishment even in this world. 
It has been clearly demonstrated that our 
lowest cax^acities of enjoyment do not depend 
upon cultivation at all, but that our highest 
do ; this will help lis to appreciate the wisdom 
of the Apostolic advice to “bring the body 
under subjection for; to use the words of 
Professor Upham :— 

“ The Christian who is desirous of securing 
fully the approbation of his heavenly Father, 
must be careful not only to do the right and 
avoid the wrong, but also to avoid all places 
and all occasions which would be likely, for 
any reason, to lead him wrong.” Thus we see 
it is of vital importance that we entertain 
distinct and precise ideas, since it is a duty 
we owe to ourselves and our families to get 
rid, so far as we can, ot that which is in any 
way liable to hurt or destroy. 

“Now, what are the physiological and 
pathological effects which follow, in general, 
the frequent or continuous use of narcotic 
stimulants ? 

“ 1st. After using them for a time, the quan¬ 
tity of the dos3 must be increased in order to 


(1) Dr. M’CuUoch. 




THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


29 


produce the same effect. 2nd. The depression 
and exhaustion which follow are exactly 
equivalent to the amount of pleasurable exhil¬ 
aration or excitement caused by the quantity 
used; and hence one of the principal causes 
of the dose being so frequently repeated. 3rd. 
These narcotic stimulants—at least many of 
them, and more especially alcohol and opium 
—tend to create an artificial, persistent, and 
uncontrollable appetite or craving, which 
renders their votaries slaves to the habit. 4th. 
In persons in whom this artificial appetite is 
formed, the first glass or dose, however mod¬ 
erate, by its effects on the brain paralyzes the 
will, and thus destroys any resolutions of 
temperance or moderation which had been 
previously formed; and I may add, that the 
artificial appetite is formed and in force long 
before it is suspected by others, or even by the 
victim himself. In short, the act of stvallowing 
the liquid and the loss of resolution and self-control 
are inevitable cause and effect, and nearly simul¬ 
taneous.” (1) Such being the case, need we 
wonder at the accumulated evils which are 
constantly springing up in connection with this 
system of di-inking ? 

Intoxicating drinks also develop self-con- 


(1) Dr. M’ CuUoch. 



30 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

CEiT.— Sir Joshua Reynolds having maintained 
that wine improved conversation, Dr. Johnson 
replied, “No, sir; ]3efore dinner men meet 
with great inequality of understanding. And 
those who are conscious of their inferiority have 
the modesty not to talk; when they have 
drunk wine, every man feels himself comfort¬ 
able, and loses that modesty, and grows impu¬ 
dent and vociferous ; but he is not imj^roved, 
he is only not sensible of his defects.” 

“ From the best-ascertained observations, 
we find that one part of the brain is devoted 
to the intellectual power, another to the moral 
power, and another to the animal passions; 
and it is a remarkable fact that when you ob¬ 
serve people drinking, you find their intellec¬ 
tual powers are weakened and incapable of 
sustained action. Give a man alcoholic drink, 
even in moderate quantity, and if it has any 
effect at all, it will prevent that man going on 
with satisfaction to himself, or with lucidity 
for his hearers, with either an abstruse math¬ 
ematical demonstration or a metaphysical 
argument. It is well known, too, that alcohol 
diminishes and degrades and perverts the moral 
faculty. Conscientiousness becomes diminished, 
and cautiousness, and delicacy ; and chattering 
and babbling take their place ; and the animal 


THE PILLAR OF REASON. 31 

passions, when the intellectaal and the moral 
decline in po wer, assert an extra domination over 
all. These passions are wisely given us for 
enjoyment, and for good purposes; but if 
unrestrained, they lead to all manner of crime 
and iniquity. The human will, that power 
which sits and towers above, and directs all 
the faculties of the mind, becomes weakened by 
alcohol to an eminent degree ; as it has been 
said, the drunkard is a will-less being.”(l) 

Lord Byron, writing about a party where 
wine w^as freely circulated, said, they were 

first silent, then talky, then argumentative, 
then disputatious, then unintelligible, then 
altogethery,, then inarticulate, and then— 

DRUNK,” 

Xenophon narrates an interesting circum¬ 
stance illustrative of this subject, relative to 
Cyrus, which occurred during a visit which the 
latter made, when a boy, to his maternal 
grandfather, Astyages. Cyrus was asked by 
his grandfather why he did not swallow some 
of the wine? “Because, truly,” replied the 
youth, “I was afraid there had been poison 
mixed wdth the cup ; for when you feasted 
your friends upon your birthday, I plainly 
found the Saccas (slave) had poured you out 


(l)Dr M’C'iUoch, 



32 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

all poison.” “And how, child,” replied 
Astyages, “ did you know this ?” “ Truly,” 

said Cyrus, “ because I saw you all disordered 
in body and mind ; for first, what you do not 
allow us boys to do, that you did yourselves ; 
for you all bawled together, and could learn 
nothing of each other ; then you fell to sing¬ 
ing very ridiculously, and without attending to 
the singer, you swore he sang admirably : 
then every one telling stories of his o'svn 
strength, you rose and fell to dancing, but 
without all rule or measure, for you could not 
so much as keep yourselves upright; then you 
all entirely forgot yourselves ; you, that you 
were king, and they, that you were their gover¬ 
nor : and then, for the first time, I discovered 
that you were celebrating a festival where all 
were allowed to talk with equal Hberty, for 
you never ceased talking.” 

Nor is this the only danger, for “ if there is 
abeady a pre-existent tendency to any form of 
disease, lurking within the system, and await¬ 
ing only some accidental circumstances to call 
it into action, it must be evident how efficient 
a means would be here provided, and with 
how much more intense and rapid violence the 
mischief would be developed. Thus, if the 
vessel within the brain be distended, and its 


THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


33 


walls, tkrough an alteration in their texture, 
just retain strength sufficient to restrain the 
blood within their bounds, a single throh of 
additional power may be enough to bui’st the 
baiTier, and the noblest of our faculties, or life 
itself, be at once suppressed or extin- 
guished.”(l) 

We are quite aware that “when great truths 
are driven to make an appeal to reason, know¬ 
ledge becomes criminal, and philosopher^ 
martyrs. Truth, however, like all moral 
powers, can neither be checked nor extin¬ 
guished. When compressed, it but reacts the 
more. It crushes where it cannot expand—it 
burns where it is not allowed to shine. Human, 
when originally divulged, it becomes divine 
when finally established. At first the breath 
of a sage, at last it is the edict of a god. En¬ 
dowed with such vital energy, astt'ononuGal 
truth has cut its way through the thick dark¬ 
ness of superstitious times, and, cheered by its 
conquests, geology will find the same open path 
when it has triumphed over the less formidable 
obstacles of the civilized age.” (2) 

And may we not also hope that temperance 
will likewise triumph ? for one truth cannot 

(1) Wilson’s “ Pathology of Drunkenness." 

(2) Sir David Brewster. 



34 THE rOUE PILL AES OF TEMPEEANCE. 

oppose another truth ; while “ » truth once 
established remains undisputed, and society, 
on the whole, advances.” 

“ But I don’t see why I should give up my 
little because some abuse it,” we often hear it 
said. This arises from a misconception of the 
thing itself. We never yet met with any one 
who abused the drink, but have met man^^, alas! 
whom the drink has abused. “ It is always an 
evil symptom,” says Hannah More, “when 
professedly religious people are contending 
for a little extension of gratification, and fight¬ 
ing to hedge in a little more territory to their 
pleasure ground.” 

If it be true that “ moderation oils the hinges 
that lead to excess,” then it is evident that 
“when we speak of the abuse of a thing, we 
cannot mean less than that the thing in ques¬ 
tion is at least fitted to do greatly more good 
than harm, even in the present state of the 
human mind and of society ; we understand 
of it, that good is its natural general effect, and 

evil the incidental, man being as he is. 

If it be not calculated mainly to do good till 
human society shall have grown incomparably 
more virtuous, and thus attained a state ca¬ 
pable of neutralising its operation, or even 
converting it into something beneficial, it is 



THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


35 


plainly, for any present use, absolutely bad, 
necessarily bad in its regular operation, and to 
call this operation an abuse is disingenuous 
and deceptive language.”(l) 

Or, as another writer, with great clearness 
and force observes : “ If there is something 
wholesome in them, which almost refuses cor¬ 
ruption ; if the advantages they produce 
balance their mischief, if corrupted ; if, by 
scattering their oils around, they contribute to 
smoothe, without poisoning, the waves of life ; 
if their direct or chance expense does not 
break in upon that treasury which ever}’^ man 
keeps for his neighbor ; if they are not so 
closely allied to the amusements (or habits) of 
the bad, as to break down the wall of parti¬ 
tion between us and them ; if they have no 
tendency to wean society from more profitable 
employments; if, lastly, they do not encroach 
upon that handful of time bestowed upon man 
to do the business of eternity—if all this be 
true of any of them, I will say of him who uses 
them, he may be a Christian, and a good 
Christian ; but I shall still think him the 
most distinguished Christian who uses them 
the least. The good man will ever seek his 
pleasures in the field of duties.” Just as Dr. 

(1) John Foster, “Essay on Theatres.” 



36 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

Johnson once observed, when giving a reason 
for his abstinence, “ it is so much better for a 
man to he sure that he is never to be intoxi¬ 
cated, never to lose the power of himself.” 
Wisely, therefore, did the Rev. J. A. James 
urge, “ I most earnestly entreat you to abstain 
from all intoxicating liquors ; you do not need 
them for health, and to take them for gratifi¬ 
cation is the germ of inebriety” 

“ It is a good rule,” says the Rev. W. Arnot, 
“ for a Christian to go into no company, and 
engage in no employment, except where he 
can take the law of the Lord as his companion 
all the way, and all the time.” 

Sometimes we hear it said, If I thought it 
did me harm, I would leave it off!” As if the 
thinking made any difference. You may think 
a salt herring for breakfast will not make you 
thirsty, but if you eat it, you will find out that 
the salt, and the creed, act apparently by two 
different laws, all the while, however, teaching 
you the lesson that, as Dr. Wayland says, “ all 
the relations of life, whether moral or physical, 
are the result of God’s enactment, and the 
order once discovered is just as invariable in 
the one as the other. Such being the case, it 
is evident that the moral laws of God can 
never be varied by the institutions of man, any 


THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


37 


more than the physical laws. The results 
which God has connected with actions will 
inevitably occur, all the created power in the 
universe to the contrary notwithstanding. 
True, the time may be delayed, but the time, 
whether long or short, has neither power nor 
tendency to change the order of an established 
sequence. The time required for vegetation 
in different orders of plants may vary, but yet 
wheat will always produce wheat, so ‘ Be not 
deceived, God is not mocked; whatsoever a 
man someth, that shall he also reap.’ The harvest, 
be it remembered, is invariably more abundant 
than the seeds from which it spring8.”(l) 

Lord Macaulay observes :—“ We do not see 
either the piety or the rationality of expecting 
that the Supreme Being will interfere to disturb 
the common succession of causes and effects. 
W^e rely upon his good as manifested, not in 
extraordinary interpositions, but in those 
general laws which it has pleased him to esta¬ 
blish in the physical and in the moral world.” 

Our plain duty, then, is to trace out, by the 
use of legitimate means, the true nature and 
effects of the drink, and to judge of them by 
the same standard which we apply to other 
things. In the course of our inquiry it is 


4 


(1) “ Moral Science. 



88 THE rots E1ELAH9 OF TEMEESANCE. 

quite possible we may come in collision with 
some oki notions and habits, b\it it should 
always bo remembered that ‘‘Frej-vdice wears 
colored glasses, and can only see through that 
medium ; custom has eyes behind instead of in 
the front; selfishness sees only one part; tim^ 
idity sees double, and fears ; while ignorance 
sees nothing.'’ 

So that if we wish to arrive at a proper con¬ 
clusion, and to be “fully persuaded in our own 
mind,” we shall find that this can only be the 
result of serious, persevering, and impartial 
inquiry, never forgetting, meanwhile, that 
ignorance excuses no one, but that, in the 
words of Dr. Gumming, “ a man will be con¬ 
demned for this—that he nevei’ earnestly 
examined the question, that he never looked 
honestly, sincerely, and intensely at the power¬ 
ful evidences by which conclusions may be 
determined ; and his great guilt will be, not 
that he came to a wrnng conclusion, but that 
he wilfully refused the only means of coming 
to a right and legitimate conclusion.”(l) 

It is no uncommon thing to meet with per¬ 
sons who, as Lord Macaulay said of Southey, 
“have the faculty of believing without a 
reason, and hating "svithout a provocation,” 


(1) “ Satan an Angel of Light. 



THE PILLAR OF REASON. 39 

especially when preconceived notions occupy 
their minds. This will not, however, by any 
means alter the operation of the unerring law 
of cause and effect. On the contrary, “ a man 
may incur the deepest guilt by the disbehef of 
truths which he has failed to examine with 
the care which is due to them.*\l) If men 
have the means of knowing and do not embrace 
them, they deserve to suffer, and, according to 
the doctrine laid down by St. Paul in his 
Epistle to the Komans, will be completely 
without excuse in the great day of reckoning. 
Dr. Lankester admits that “Man advances 
only as he knows and applies the laws by which 
God governs the world in which he lives.”(2) 
And yet with the perversity which distinguishes 
those who believe in singing, “ as it was in the 
beginning, is now, and ever shall be,” he per¬ 
sists in advising people to take a little drink, 
furnishing another instance of the importance 
of not taking authority for truth '’—but rather 
having “ truth for authorihj.” Even Dr. Gum¬ 
ming teaches that, “ in the natural world the 
blackbird, thrush, canary, and nightingale drink 
nothing but water, and smoke nothing but 


(1) Abercrombie. 

(2) Popular Lectures on Food.” 



40 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

fresh air. A grove or wood in spring echoes 
with feathered musicians, each a teetotaler, 
ever singing and never diy and in another 
place, when lecturing to the young men, 
advises as follows ;— 

“If you feel dull, sleepy and exhausted, a 
lively tune will rouse your nerves and restore 
them to harmony. Do not have recourse to 
ivine or alcohol, these will aggravate, not cure. 
Try music, it is essentially teetotal and yet in- 
sj)h-iting.” 

On the contrary : “ Drunkenness,” says 
Augustine, “ is a flattering devil, a sweet poison, 
a pleasant sin, which whosoever hath, hath 
not himself ;—which vdiosoever doth commit, 
committeth not a single sin, but becomes the 
centre and slave of all manner of sin.” 

“It is the moral ruin which it works in the 
soul which gives it the denomination of giant 
wickedness. If all who are intemperate drank 
to insensibility, and, on awaking, could arise 
from the deb luch with intellect and heart 
uninjured, it would strip the crime of its most 
appalling evils. But among the woes which 
the Scripture denounces against crime, one is, 
‘ woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, 
and men of strength to consume strong drink V 


THE PILLAR OP REASON. 


41 


These are captains in the bands of intemper¬ 
ance.” (1) 

But I really can’t do anything! Sometimes 
this is pleaded as an excuse by those who 
ought to know better. True, men never prac¬ 
tically aim at getting, what they deem impos¬ 
sible. But if a sceptic were to say, “I can’t 
help this or that because my character is 
formed for me and not hy me,” Christians who 
wish successfully to meet the objection would 
proceed to show that man has power to choose 
between good and evil, and is responsible for 
the proper exercise of his faculties, inasmuch 
as he is not a mere machine, but a reasonable 
being; so w^e reply with the same kind of 
argument; for if all were to use this language, 
what would be the issue ? 

‘‘ This temperance reformation, like every¬ 
thing else that turns man from his iniquities, 
is the fi’uit of the Gospel. It has takdn its 
place among that great moral machinery which 
is fast renovating a fallen world, and restoring 
man to the love and enjoyment of God.” (2) 
Now suppose such efforts were to cease, what 
would be the result ? Just the reverse, inas¬ 
much as the natural tendency of evil things is 


(1) Lyman Beecher, D.D. 

(2) W. A. Pallister. 



42 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

from bad to worse ; while, on the contrary, ah 
good has a tendency to draw together, just as 
“ Birds of a feather flock together.” 

Then upon whom rests the responsibility ? 
"What causes nine-tenths of the crime, poverty, 
and misery in our land ? Drunkenness. 
What causes drunkenness ? The use of intoxi¬ 
cating drinks; How do the people obtain 
them ? At the pubhc houses, beer shops, &c. 
How is it that these are allowed to sell ? The 
magistrates and excise grant hcenses. Where 
do they get the power to do so ? From the 
licensing laws. Who makes those laws ? The 
legislators. Who makes the legislators ? The 
electors. Who makes the electors ? The 
people. Who are the people ? The people, 
why—I am one of them. Then on which side 
are you using your influence? Is it to feed 
the curse, or is it to stay its ravages ? If you 
are not with the drinkers, then you must be 
against them, and all the horrid results of the 
system,—and mark, this is not a mere matter 
of opinion, for a moral act is one which ought 
to be performed, and an immoral act is one 
■which ought not to be done. Upon which side 
does reason say you ought to be found ? 

But we are told, Moderation is the best plan, 
—to which we reply : That is never right in 


THE PILLAE OF EEASON. 


43 


theory, which is wrong in practice. Judged by 
this standard, moderation certainly must be 
condemned, for “ could we contemplate the 
possibility of drinking habits becoming uni¬ 
versal, their results would be the complete 
annihilation of the human race at no vlistant 
period, just as already more than one tribe of 
the savages of the new world have actually 
been known to become extinct under the in¬ 
fluence of the ‘fire water.’ Fever and pesti¬ 
lence may visit us at intervals, and mark theii' 
progress by terror and desolation, but drunk¬ 
enness is worse than the pest, for its blight is 
unceasingly among us, and sinks deeper, wider, 
and more permanently into the vitals of society. 
Yet the bulk of mankind, with its habitual 
apathy towards all matters with which it comes 
in daily contact, and which for that very rea¬ 
son it should regard with the more intense 
anxiety, looks on with cold indifference.”(l) 
"While, on the other hand, the removal of this 
vice of intemperance would afford an oppor¬ 
tunity to the philanthropist, the statesman, 
and the Christian, to advance the great moral, 
social and religious interests of the commu¬ 
nity to a degree which appears quite beyond 
hope, while the present drinking customs 


1) Wilson's Pathology.” 



44 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 


continue : it is true some Christians pray and 
labor in their loay 'iov prosperity to attend the 
preaching of the Gospel, the sabbath school, 
and the missionary. “Now we may build 
churches, and multiply chapels and schools ; 
but until the drinking habits of the people are 
changed, we shall never act upon them as we 
would wish. While the pot-house is their 
church, gin their sacrament, and the tap-room 
their school-room for evening classes, how can 
we adequately convert them?” (1) For from 
the united testimony of all who have taken 
the trouble to look for reasons for their non¬ 
success, the evidence is unanimously in favor 
of the words of Mr. Hill, the Kecorder of 
Birmingham : “ Whatever stej) we take, and 
into whatever direction we may strike, the 
drink demon starts up and blocks the way.” 
We believe it thoroughly impossible to exag¬ 
gerate the evils that flow incessantly from our 
gin palaces, public houses, beer shops, &c., for 
they not only produce a vast amount of drunk¬ 
enness, but evils produced by other causes are 
perpetuated, while a host of others are pro¬ 
duced peculiar to the system itself, so that we 
are bound to come to this conclusion, that 
if moderation has neither the power to construct 


(1) Eev. E. Vanderkiste. 



THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


45 


the goody nor destroy the evil, it is manifestly for 
all practical pur 2 ^oses opposed to reason, and 
ought therefore to he abandoned. 

But wliat is MODERATION ? 

Let us hear what Dr M’Culloch has to say : 
—“ I shall notice what I may call the ‘ tem¬ 
perance, and moderation’ fallacy. Alcohol is a 
stimulo-narcotic poison. This is' not only 
proved but admitted by all competent autho¬ 
rities. Now, what is a stimulo-narcotic poi¬ 
son? Positively, it is matter which has the 
property of disturbing and injuring, in a cer¬ 
tain way, and in any degree, the natural 
functions, or deranging the healthy organiza¬ 
tion of the body, by virtue of its specific qual¬ 
ities. Negatively, it cannot fulfil the purposes 
or supply the place of food or drink in any 
degree, innocently or permanently. Poison 
is the name of an intrinsic quality, and has 
no reference whatever to quantity, quantity 
being only considered in regard to the extent 
of its poisonous effects. One particle of opium, 
or one drop of alcohol, therefore, is as much 
and truly a poison as a pound or a gallon. 

“Food and drink are not poisons, and 
poisons never can. be food or drink, in the 
true meaning of the terms. To hear men, 
then, who ought to know better, speak of 


46 THE FOUE PILLAKS OF TEMPEKANCE. 

them in reciprocal terms, betrays a pitiable 
ignorance of, or duplicity in, the logical defini¬ 
tion and nature of the things indicated. Can 
the terms ‘ temperate’ or ‘ moderate,’ then, be 
applied to the dietetic use of poisons? No, 
we can correctly use these terms only in re¬ 
gard to what is wholesome, appropriate, and 
good—physically, morally, and religiously. 
To speak of the temperate or moderate 
dietetic use of a poison, is an abuse of lan¬ 
guage which would be scouted and ridiculed 
if applied to anything save the use of those 
popular intoxicants. Allow me to illustrate 
this analogically. Take it morally: what 
would you think of a man who attempted to 
palliate or defend his falsehood and dishonesty 
by pleading that he was a temperate liar or a 
moderate thief? Take it physically : what 
would you think of another who bragged that 
he ate arsenic and stry^chnine and di'ank ];)rus- 
sic acid temperately and moderately, as diet 
and refreshment ? If these shock propriety, 
and excite laughter and disgust, how is it 
that so many are blind to the equal absurdity 
of the so-called ‘ temperate’ or ‘ moderate’ use 
of drinks, the essential ingredient of which is 
the stimulo-narcotic poison, alcohol? It is 
habit, custom, conventionality, and fashion. 



TIIE PILLAB OP EEASON. 


47 


which causes men to see the mote in the eye 
of the opium-eater, and blinds them to the al¬ 
coholic beam in their own. Alcohol is a poison, 
and total abstinence from the dietetic use of 
these drinks, in every shape, form, or quan¬ 
tity, is the only true, the only logical temper¬ 
ance and moderation in regard to them.” 

Or listen to another competent authority : 
—“ The greatest discovery, for which we are 
indebted to the philanthropists of America, is 

that TEMPERATE DRINKERS ARE THE CHIEF PROMOT¬ 
ERS OF DRUNKENNESS. Although the example of 
the drunkard is contaminating and injurious, 
yet he serves also as a beacon to warn away 
from the vortex where thousands have per¬ 
ished, while those who are unconsciously 
gliding towards the fatal circle point with con- 
adence to the practice of the moderate drink- 
er.”(l) 

One more will suffice. Eev. B. Parsons 
says :—“ Moderation is a term of very indefi¬ 
nite signification. The quantity which one 
man professes to use without injury, would 
render another senseless or mad. Intoxica¬ 
tion begins as soon as the first drop is taken ; 
the liquor operates instantaneously through the 
nerves upon the • brain, and commences its 


(1) Wesleyan Mag., 1834, p. 382. 



48 THE EOUR PILLA.RS OF TEMPERANCE. 

awful work of dethroning reason, inflaming 
the passions, and corrupting the heart. 
Scarcely has it been tasted, but it begins to 
annihilate all that constituted the man, and 
to substitute for the inteiiect and feeling which 
it has destroyed, the insinuations and inspira¬ 
tions of a fiend. The murderer drinks moder¬ 
ately ; he takes enough to inspirit him for the 
deed, but not so much as would cause his 
sight to fail, or his hand to falter. The thi^, 
to fit himself for his work, drinks moderately. 
Without the recklessness and demoniacal 
courage the alcohol gives, he would be unable 
to rob his neighbor, and to risk the conse¬ 
quences ; and were he to drink too much he 
would be too stupid to find his way to the 
house or the property on which his heart is 
set. The female street-icalker drinks moderately. 
Were she not to drink a little, she could not 
put on the brazen front which her pursuit de¬ 
mands, and were she to drink too much, her 
guilty paramours, sensual as they are, would 
be disgusted. Tt was under the influence of 
a moderate cup that the youth was beguiled or 
inflamed to cast in his lot with the murderer, 
the thief, or the ‘ stranger that flattereth with 
her lips,’ and to commit crimes for which the 
laws of his country, the gallows, or disease 


THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


49 


have brought him to death. Under its influ¬ 
ence human beings can commit crimes at 
which demons must blush, and then can smile 
at infamy, death, and damnation.”(1) 

Indeed, there can he no moderation in a thing 
which is had in itself. Whoever heard of 
moderate lying or stealing ? In truth, mod¬ 
erate drinking is felt not to be safe ; hence the 
oft-repeated caution, “ Mind, don't take too 
much.” It is also seen not to be safe. And 
events of daily occurrence prove it not to be 
safe. 

If I saw it to he my duty, then I would 
abstain.’' This is another mistaken notion 
often met with. Our seeing a thing to be true 
does not make it true, though it increases our 
responsibility. But there are those in the 
world who “ love darkness rather then light 
what shaU we say of them ? Is it necessary to 
wait for their verdict ? Certainly not, for as 
the Kev. W. Amot says :— 

“It is the merest hypocrisy to complain 
that you are not tenderly affected by the sight 
of certain objects, if on those objects you 
seldom look, and never gaze.” We do not, at 
any rate, act in that way about other things. 
Suppose such were brought before a magistrate 


(1) Parsons’ “Anti-Bacchus.” 

5 



50 THE FOUE PILLAES OF TEMPEEANCE. 

for a breach of the law, and pleaded as an 
excuse that they “ didn’t know that it was 
wrong,”—what would be said? “You ought 
to have known,” and a fine for not seeing would 
be the result. 

"W'hen Hagar uttered the cry, “ Thou, God, 
seest me,” it was simply giving utterance to 
her own experience towards God, for it was 
equally true that God saw her before she said 
so, and it is just the same with truth. Its 
existence does not depend upon our percep¬ 
tion : it never varies, it is fixed and unalterable 
like its author, and whether we see it or not, 
remains “ without variableness or the shadow 
of a turning.” 

The Government of this country once opposed 
an effort to extend the Gospel to the Hindoos, 
and also the attempt made in Parliament to 
obtain a law “ that it should not be absolutely 
illegal for benevolent men of this country to 
go (under the most cautious conditions and 
responsibilities) for the purpose of peacefully 
teaching the Christian religion among the 
people.” Upon this John Foster says, “ now, 
though there can be no one comprehensive 
rule by which the relative proportions of guilt 
in such cases can be instantly and precisely 
determined, we should suppose that, according 



THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


61 


to any just notion of tne degrees in wnich the 
increased means of knowing ivhat is light (wlMher 
these means are improved or not), aggravate the 
criminality of doing wrong, the guilt must be 
augmented at each step.”(l) 

“Blit I believe I am right f it is often said, to 
which we will let Dr. Gumming reply; he 
says :—“Another pretext of Satan is, that 
whatever a man conscientiously believes must be 
right. If conscience were in all cases the 
counterj)art of God’s Word, then whatever a 
man’s conscience told him would be equivalent 
practically to a voice or an inspiration from 
God ; but when we know that consciences do 
not all agree and harmonize together in their 
convictions, it is clear they cannot all be the 
echo of God’s Word ; and when we know that 
some are dead, and some are defiled, and 
some are ‘ seared as with a hot iron,’ we must 
see that men may be conscientiously wrong as 
well as conscientiously right. To be con¬ 
scientiously convinced, and on that to act, is a 
proof that a man is sincere, but it is no proof 
that a man’s creed is a correct one. Paul was 
most conscientious when he ‘persecuted to 
strange cities ;’ the Chinese mother is most 
conscientious when she casts down her female 


(1) Essays. 



5i2 THE FOUB PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

babe to perish in the highway ; the Hindoo 
mother is most conscientious when she casts 
her infant into the Ganges to perish ; but that 
does not prove these murders to be right. It 
only proves the sincerity of the person ; it 
does not prove the correctness of his creed.”(1) 
Neglect in the performance of any duty com¬ 
monly entails as its punishment the very ina¬ 
bility which is often complained of ; hence the 
exhortation, “Walk while ye have the light, 
lest darkness come upon you.” There is a 
peculiar darkening of the eye in those who 
have the light and do not use it, like certain 
fishes of which we have read, that from long 
confinement in dark caverns, have lost the pow¬ 
er of vision. How often do w^e find that men 
turn their minds away from evidence which 
might have produced conviction of truth, or 
else cultivate such a state of mind that evi¬ 
dence of a certain kind cannot be received. 
At the same time it is worthy of remark, that 
in proportion as the mind is enlightened by 
truth, and the heart is upright, will the sensi¬ 
bility of the moral faculty be increased. Hence 
every action takes its character from the . mo¬ 
tive which prompts it, so that if a- man’s con¬ 
science dictates a certain action, he is morally 

(1) Lecture on ‘ ‘ Satan an Angel of Light. ’* 



THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


53 


bound to do it ; but if the action is in itself 
wrong, he commits sin in doing it nevei the-' 
less, inasmuch as ignorance and error, which 
might have been avoided, never excuse from 
blame. 

The next point we shall notice is this— 

That is best which does the most good. To 
judge properly of the influence of the drink, let 
us suppose that it had its full play without 
check or hinderance. If we listen to the voice 
of past history, and are prepared to learn by 
its teacliing, we shall find that the drinking 
customs of society have always been produc¬ 
tive of certain evil results, while, on the contrary, 
just in proportion as the principles of absti¬ 
nence have prevailed, there has been a cor¬ 
responding advance in morality, goodness and 
purity. How is it, we may ask, that if the drinks 
ing customs be virtuous, the system thrives most 
in those districts ivhere vice and immorality 
abound? Should drunkenness continue to 
increase, “ the time would come when the 
earnings of the sober and industrious few, 
would be inadequate to provide for the wants 
of the drunken and idle many, and intemper¬ 
ance would be restrained by the the very des¬ 
titution it would occasion.”(l) 


(1) Dr. Nott. 




54 the eoue pillaes oe tempeeance. 

If tlie stream be so dirty, then the fountain 
from whence it springs must be unclean. If 
drunkenness in act be so sinful, then drunken¬ 
ness in principle must be evil also ; for if you 
multiply 0 by 0, however large the number, 
still 0 remains ; just as you find in mechanicSy 
that wher(3 powder is sent through a series, the 
whole must pass through the first, and on to 
the end : it is so with the commencement of 
drinking. 

But whatever may be the dangers of indulg¬ 
ing in such drinks (and they are many), in ab- 
Btaini])g there are none, for if you remove the 
cause, the ejfect must cease. This is the grand 
design of the temperance society ; its object is 
to keep all sober who are so now, till all the 
drunkards who will not (or cannot) reform, die 
out, and the world is free. By this means alone 
shall we ultimately be able to rid the world 
of dimnkenness, inasmuch as the system of 
drinking exists (professedly it is true) for the 
use of moderate drinkers and theirs alone. 
Meantime, fearful is the responsibility of those 
who uphold the system, “ for it is not wanting 
to complete an act of suicide, that a man should 
terminate his hfe by a single blow, or concen¬ 
trate into one draught the poison which he has 
preferred to distribute into an indefinite num" 


THE PILLAB OF BEASON. 


65 


ber of potions. To know the'tendency of his 
acts, was to involve him in theii* full responsi¬ 
bility, and the pertinacity with which they were 
repeated, was only under such circumstances 
an aggravation of their guilt.”(l) 

Take as an illustration our wonderful system 
of railroad travelling. Suppose that there 
were two lines of rails, of several miles in 
length, to and from some central business 
towu. On the one line they kept everything 
in good working condition—the trains were 
always punctual,— the officials polite and obhg- 
ing,—there were never any accidents or disas¬ 
ters, and they charged moderate fares. 

On the other line, the carriages and rails 
were in bad condition—trains always behind 
time—frequently breaking down—accidents 
of all kinds, some damaging the property, and 
others injuring the passengers,—the only 
Beeming advantage was its lower fares;— 
would you risk your life, and trust your prop¬ 
erty to such management? Eeason would 
say, no. Safety is worth everything, and if the 
directors were to offer to carry me for nothing, 
I would rather walk, than run the risk of dan¬ 
ger. 

The two rival lines are abstinence and drink-‘ 


(1) Wilson’s “Pathology. 



56 THE FOUE PILLAES OF TEMPEEANCE. 


ing; on the foriher line it is a practical impos¬ 
sibility to get into danger ; at all times you are 
safe—the lines are in good condition—never 
lead any astray ; it is cheaper travelling on than 
the other, and, also, never was known to cause 
any disaster either to body or to soul—it is, 
so to speak, the railroad to the city of peace, 
plenty, and goodness, as thousands can testify. 
But the latter may be truly called the Kail- 
EOAD TO Ruin.— “ Surveyed by avarice,—char¬ 
tered by magistrates and excise,—freighted 
with drunkards, — with public houses for 
depots,—drink-sellers for engineers,—bar-ten¬ 
ders for conductors,—and landlords for stock¬ 
holders,—fired up with alcohol,—and boiling 
with dehrium tremens. The groans of the 
dying are the thunders of the trains,—and the 
shrieks of women and children are the whistle 
of its engines. By the help of God we will 
reverse the steam,—put out the fire,—veto the 
license,—and save the freight.” 

Is this not the decision of a reasonable 
being ? Ponder the following facts, showing 
as they do in the most conclusive manner the 
working of the two systems, and the legitimate 
results attending them. 

“ In one case a father adopted the plan of 
using a little intoxicating liquor every day. He 


THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


67 


was never intoxicated, and was never known 
to be in tbe least intemperate. He only took 
a little, a very little, because he thought it did 
him good? For the same reason, his children 
took a little, daily ; and so did their children. 
And now, not less than forty of his descend¬ 
ants are drunkards, or in the drunkard’s 
grave. 

“ Another man adopted a different plan ; he 
would not use such drinks, he would not buy 
them nor suffer them to enter his house. He 
taught his children to treat them as poison, a 
mortal poison ; and they taught their children. 
And now, there is not a drunkard among 
them,- nor has one of his descendants come -^o 
the drunkard’s grave. Long, long may it be 
before any one ever shall.”(l) 

In view of such facts (and they might be 
multiplied to almost any extent), we are justi¬ 
fied in saying, that there must be something 
radically wrong in this habit of moderate drink¬ 
ing, since it leads in so large a proj)ortion of 
cases, to such deplorable results; and it be¬ 
hoves every man to do what he can to stay the 
evil; for if we do not try to remove it, we 
cannot free ourselves from the guilt of its 
effects. 

(1) “Permanent American Temperance Documents.” 



58 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

Indeed, the time has fully arrived when the 
claims of the temjierance movement ought to 
be fairly and honestly considered. We ask 
for no favor, we simply demand that the evi¬ 
dence be weighed in the balances. We are 
afi'aid that in man^’^ cases it is not knowledge 
that is wanted, so much as the will to carry 
out the thoughts into action ; and it is won¬ 
derful what subterfuges the darkened and 
perverse mind of man will have recourse to, to 
evade the force of truth, when the habits of the 
objector are at variance with its dictates. 
Advance in knowledge depends more than is 
usually imagined upon the state of the heart; 
for what we admire we naturally aim at, and 
what we love we naturally seek. 

“ How possible it is, that, even while we are 
contending for truth, our minds may be en¬ 
slaved to error by long cherished pre-possess¬ 
ions /”(1) 

Nevertheless, the plain truth must be spoken 
whether men will hear or forbear ; for, as Isaac 
Taylor says, “we are come to no easy and 
gentle mood of the world’s history ; this is 
not the hour of leisure and soft persuasion ; 
whoever does not speak boldly, had better not 
speak at all. Nothing can now avail the cause 


(1) Arch. Pratt. 



THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


69 


of tmtL, but the courage which truth ought 
to inspire.” 

At the same time we are quite aware that 
“ the ability of the understanding to ascertain 
moral and religious truth always and neces¬ 
sarily corresponds with the physiological and 
moral purity of the individual.” (1) Hence 
the importance of having the mind free from 
every possible influence that would hinder the 
discovery and application of the truth. 

Of one thing we are quite certain, viz., that 
whatever is the will of God, must be the duty of 
man. The life which secures man’s highest 
good here fits him also for his highest good 
Jiereafter, rendering it therefore as truly man’s 
religious duty to obey the laws which relate to 
his body as those which are peculiar to the 
soul. The highest and best interests of the 
soul can never be secured, while the true in¬ 
terests of the body are violated or neglected. 
And, we ask, does not our knowledge of 
nature teach us, that every Divine law relating 
to man is, with infinite wisdom and benevo¬ 
lence, adapted for human good ? 

Such being the case, then, we present before 
you God’s command, and it is this,— “be sober.” 
Now, which is the most hkely way to secure 


(1) Graham. 



60 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

the sobriety of each individual, and thus keep 
the commandment ? Reason says, “ Touch not, 
taste not for, “ He who wills the issue, must 
be honored in the process” and that which is 
best and safe for one, is the best and safest for 
all. The victory a man secures over himself 
yields its harvest of fruits also to others, hence 
the motive to “let our light so shine, that 
others may see our good works.” Now it is 
quite certain that “ ??o command of God can he 
at variance with man’s best interests.” As Syl¬ 
vester Graham observes, “ no moral or civil 
law, or religious doctrine, can be adapted to 
the highest and best condition of man’s intel¬ 
lectual, moral, and religious nature, which is 
not strictly consistent vdth the physiological 
law of his body and on the other hand, no 
bodily habit, indulgence, or regimen, can be 
adapted to the highest and best condition of 
the body, which is not strictly consistent with 
the constitutional laws of his intellectual, 
moral, and religious nature.” 

Hence we conclude, that for self-preservation, 
abstinence is a duty man owes to himself, 
while for a safe example, abstinence is a duty 
man owes to his neighbor. Voluntary absti- 
nenoe from doing evil, is an esseniial pre-requisite 
for doing good. We are quite prepared to 


THE PILLAR OF REASON. 


61 


admit, that owing to a large amount of moral 
control, possibly, some few may never fall^ 
though many wiser and holier men have 
become victims. And should such remain 
safe, remember, “ no man liveth to himself,” 
and that while you drink, you cannot help 
giving the example of your drinking to your 
children, friends, and neighbors ; while at the 
same time you cannot, along with the example, 
give your moral restraint. “ See that no man 
put a stumbling-block in his brother’s way.” 

We appeal to Chi'istians generally, but more 
especially to the Christian minister, and we 
do so upon the old ApostoHc ground, “ Prove 
all things, hold fast that which is good in 
other words, weigh the evidence. “Come 
now, and let us reason together.” You admit 
that the temperance cause is a good cause, and 
you do so, we presume, in consequence of the 
fact, that you have either heard of, or seen, 
some poor degraded drunkard reclaimed, 
clothed, and in his right mind, sitting in the 
house of God. Has it never occurred to you, 
that if it is a good thing to reclaim such a man 
from the error of his ways, it must be far wiser 
and safer to prevent the possibility of such 
from falling? Surely, the old proverb stands 
good in this, as in other cases, that “preven- 
6 


62 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE, 

tion is better than cure,” especially if such bo 
the end of drinking. 

Nor is this all, for the Church itself is not 
free from its corrupting influence. '‘Let our 
church books be examined, and the number 
expelled from our communion be counted, and 
the cause of their fall fairly stated, we shall 
find that nineteen out of twenty of every act 
of backsliding and apostacy may be traced 
directly or indirectly to intoxicating drinks.”(l) 

. Or weigh another fact; a friend of ours has 
been a keeper in a prison for nine years; 
during that time he has kept an account of all 
the prisoners who have passed through that 
establishment; his conclusion is, “ that during 
the whole time he has never met with a single 
teetotaler committed to goal for any crime 
whatever, (yet many of them are no better 
than they ought to be), but that during the 
same period he has had thirteen ministers *af the 
Gospel come to the gaol through drink.'’ 

Quite in harmony with the teaching of reason 
is the advice of the Apostle, “ Come out from 
the world and be ye separate,” by which we are 
to understand, saysKev, Mr. Kirkus,(2) “The 
world in the forbidden sense is any company, 

(1) Parsons’ “Anti-Bacchus.” 

(2) “Christianity, Theoretical and Practical’* 



THE PILLAR OP REASON. 


63 


any place, any circumstance which renders it 
needlessly difficult, or even impossible to 
glorify God, and develop oim higher nature 
and why need this advice? Because the 
Apostle knew full well, that the Christian 
would have enemies enough to fight, without 
going out of his way to seek them. So that 
the man who prayed to be delivered from 
temptation, was also expected to slum even the 
appearance of evil, and “ that man does not act 
in conformity with the institution of his nature, 
who does not yield to conscience the supre¬ 
macy and direction over all other feelings and 
principles of action.” (1) For, says Dr. 
Lees :— 

“It is an established fact in physiology, that 
while alcohol has a peculiar affinity for the 
substance of the brain—the organ of the mind 
— %t^ action is more immediately and directly fell 
on those parts of the sympathetic and organic 
system most intimately connected with the animal 
propensities, exciting them to excessive action, 
and at the same time wasting, by a natural law, 
the vital force required for the normal action 
of the organs of the higher order.”(2) 

How, then, can you expect the fire to go out 


(1) Abercrombie. 

(2) Works, VoL L, p. 9. 



64 THE rOUK PILL AES OF TEMPEEANCE. 

while you continue to pour oil upon it? 
Indulgence in the drink confirms the hdbity and 
the habit develops the danger. If you would 
be free fi’om the danger—“ Touch not, taste 
not, handle not!’’ Temperance as infallibly 
prevents, as it radically cures, the danger. 

If it is a good cause, then all good people 
ought to belong to it. —If anything to elevate 
the i^eople ought to be done, then it should 
be done by the best hands; for it is evident 
that if a man does not help on what he can, 
he must so far hinder its progress, and if he 
does not oppose what he might, he virtually 
consents to its continuance. Such, indeed, is 
the teaching of Him “ who spake as never man 
spake”—“ He that is not with me is against 
me.” There can be only one right way ; all 
others must be wrong ; and such a way, must 
be the surest, as well as the safest; and there 
is this consolation, also, the more frequently a 
man does right, the stronger is his impulse to 
do right, and the greater the pleasure that re¬ 
sults from doing it. “ He alone is die perfect 
man whose passions are restrained by Reason, 
and whose entire powers are under the con¬ 
trol of conscience.” (1) If a good man reasons 
at all upon the subject, he must fall into 

(1) Abercrombie’s “Moral Feelings.” 



THE PILLAE OF REASON. 


65 


sometlimg like the following train of thought : 
—“ If I drink, it might lead to sin. If I do 
not drink it cannot lead to sin. Therefore, 
the best way will be for me to abstain.” Or, if 
he considers the matter sufficiently to dispose 
him to admit that “ Something ought to be 
done,” then he wffil naturally conclude that 
“Somebody ought to do it,”—and as he is 
“ Somebody,” he ought to be found “ doing his 
duty.” But more than all, he will give atten¬ 
tion to the teaching of the ‘ Old Book’—“ He 
that knoweth to do good ’ and doeth it not, to 
him it is sin.” And as goodness has the clear¬ 
est eye for truth, he will readily admit that 
nothing can be good, except it answers the 
end for which it is designed. As the result of 
the whole, Beason will lead him to say, that 
the path of right is the path of truth ; the 
path of truth is the path of duty ; the path of 
duty is the only path of safety ; and the path 
of safety is the path of pleasantness and peace ; 
and thus, as the end of his contemplations, he 
finds temperance supported by Beason. 



THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


“When I set forth in the pursuit of truth, I found 
that the best way was to reject everything I had 
hitherto received, and pluck out all my old opinions, 
in order that I might lay the foundation of them afresh, 
believing that by this means I should more easily ac¬ 
complish the great scheme of life than by building on 
an old basis, and supporting myself by principles that 
I had learned in my youth, without examining whether 
they were really true . . . For if we would know all the 
truths that can be known, we must, in the first place, 
free ourselves from prejudices, and make a point of re¬ 
jecting those things which we have received until we 
have submitted them to a new examination. ”(1) 

t EVER were words uttered that apply 
with more force to our subject than 
these, for when the temperance move- 
ment first began, “ gross darkness 
covered the earth,” with reference to 
^ the nature, properties, and effects of 
intoxicating di’ink ; so much so, that at one 


(1) Descartes. 







THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 67 

time all sorts oi cui'es weie ascribed to its 
agency ; while, from the highest to the lowest 
in society, no doubt seemed to exist, that in 
order to “ become a man,” the boy must drink, 
while to ^remain in the fashion, men must get as 
“ drunk as a Lord.” At length light broke forth, 
and forthwith the waters were troubled. Ever 
since, evidence has been accumulating from 
all quarters, so that now Science may be 
claimed as one of the pillars upon which the 
truths of temperance may be safely allowed 
to repose. 

One thing has been completely set at rest, 
viz., that in whatever form or color the intoxica¬ 
ting leverage may he taken, it is the alcohol, or 
s^hrit of wine, which constitutes its intoxicating 
ingredient; the distinction, therefore, between 
ardent spirits and fermented drinks, may, for 
all practical purjooses, be laid aside ; in fact, if 
it had not been for the unfortunate words 
strong drink and spirits being applied to these 
di'inks, people would have never dreamt that 
either the one gave them strength, or the other 
spirits. 

“ It is wonderful how men are led, or rather 
misled by mere words ; and the most provok¬ 
ing feature of the case is, that, while plainly 
blindfolded by the phrase, they imagine them- 


68 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


selves to be walking open-eyed in broad day¬ 
light. In most cases, if not aU, you must 
conquor the word before you can win the 
man.”(l) 

An examination of human physiology neces¬ 
sarily leads us to the following conclusions :— 

“ 1st. The human system has been construct¬ 
ed with a view to perfection. All its* opera¬ 
tions are intended to harmonize with .one 
another, to produce that state which is called 
health. 

2nd. This perfection of health depends on 
the proper performance of all the physical func¬ 
tions, which can only be secured by a careful 
investigation and observance of the laws of na¬ 
ture ; and, 

drd. Every deviation from health arises from 
some irregular organic action or infringement 
of the laws in question : for which mankind 
are alone responsible, both to their own nature 
and its Divine Author ; and they must suffer 
the unavoidable penalties consequent on im¬ 
proper indulgence. 

This interesting investigation leads to the 
conclusion that the Creator has bestowed upon 
man a sufficient guide for his direction in the 


(1) Dr. Grindrod’s “Baechus. 



THE FOUE PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 


69 


choice of his food, and the regulation of his 
physical pcnvers. 

By the constitution of his system ; and, 

2,nd. By the effects which always follow un¬ 
lawful indulgence. 

Let us see now what Dr. Carpenter says on 
this point. 

“ I take this position : that the Creator, in 
constructing the human body, made it perfect, 
if man will only give it fair play ; that every 
function in the human body is contrived and 
arranged by a wise Creator so as to act ; and 
that if man will only act in accordance with 
the purpose of the human body, that body 
shall be preserved in health and vigor to old" 
age. See then what alcohol does. Alcohol is 
foreign to the body. It is something which has 
no relation to the ordinary food of man, and 
which the body tries to get rid of as soon as 
it can ; but it cannot be got rid of fast enough. 
With all our poisons this is the case. 

“I consider that the great evil of alcohol, 
even in small quantities, habitually taken, is, 
that it perverts the ordinary functions by 
which the body is sustained in health. It in¬ 
terferes with the appropriation of the ordinary 
food ; but, far worse than that, it checks for 
the time the getting rid of the waste. It is 


70 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


just as if we were partially to stop the draught 
in the chimney, and make oiu- lire smoke. Al¬ 
cohol uses up the oxygen of the air taken in 
by the lungs, and prevents it from having its 
proper operation.” 

Hear also Dr. Conquest :— 

“ The result of my observation and experi¬ 
ence during nearly half-a-century as a medical 
man is, that even medicinally, the use of ardent 
spirits is so seldom justifiable, and the assumed 
necessity for their use so possible of being 
met by other remedial means, that it would 
be an inestimable blessing to society and to 
individuals, could their sale be so regulated as 
is contemplated by the proposed ‘permissive 
bill.’ I give this as my deliberate and con¬ 
scientious conviction, that their use as an or¬ 
dinary beverage is fraught with more or less 
physical mischief in every case in which they 
are habitually used, and I never knew moder¬ 
ate indulgence in them not attended or follow¬ 
ed by derangement of the nervous system, 
and disturbance of the functions of digestion ; 
and I am convinced that a much larger amount 
of mental and bodily labor can be performed 
by those who abstain altogether from alcoholic 
drinks,—a fact established by the recent ex¬ 
periments in casting the Lancaster shot in 


THE FOUE PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 71 

"Woolwich Arsenal, where none could endure the 
requisite fatigue hut total abstainers. 

“ I confine my opinion to its medical bear¬ 
ing, but when the subject is contemplated in 
its social and moral and religious aspects, the 
abuse of alcohol must be considered as the 
culminating evil of the United Kingdom.” 

The question then to be considered is this, 
whether total abstinence is so far consistent 
with the laws established by the Creator in 
the constitution of man, that a full measure of 
health, strength and life will inevitably result 
from an observance of those laws,—if we find 
that it is so, then it is not only safe but a duty 
to abstain. 

Mr. Miller, of Manchester, “declared from 
long experience that no man, in any ordinary 
degree of health, required a single drop of 
alcohohc hquor in any form whatever.” 

We shall see this very clearly if we ask, 
“What is the staff of life? Bread. What 
does it contain? The material of flesh. It 
also contains starch, and that starch is easily 
converted into sugar. It is so converted in 
the act of malting. You know how abun¬ 
dantly sugar is produced in the vegetable 
kin gdom. It is produced as an essential part 
of the food of animals. But do you ever find 


72 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


that sugar is converted into alcohol in the 
living plant? Never.- The j)la,nt produces 
abundance of sugar, but never, excepting when 
the juices of the plant are withdrawn, is the 
sugar converted into alcohol. Now, we find 
that the great purpose of the vegetable king¬ 
dom is to produce the food of animals. It 
produces abundance in various forms. It 
produces the sugar, and starch, and the flesh¬ 
forming principle ; but it never spontaneously 
produces alcohol. If • the Creator had meant 
that alcohol should be used as part of our 
ordinary food, the plant would have furnished 
itf as it furnishes food, starch, &c. ; but it 
never does ; and when alcohol is produced, 
that is the first of a series of stages of active 
decay. The sugar furnished by the living 
plant, Avhen it is beginning to decay, goes 
through a series of changes, producing first 
alcohol, then vinegar, and then putrefaction. 

My first point, then, is that alcohol is not 
produced by any of the processes of nature as part 
of our ordinary food. Now let us go to another 
point. The plant supplies the flesh-forming 
principle ; supplies the oil, the sugar, and- the 
starch, for keeping up the heat of the body ; 
these are constantly being used in the animal 
body for these two great purposes ; but there 


THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 73 

is another mode in which the heat of the body 
is kept np. It is kept up by the buiTiirxg of 
the waste,—the products of the combustion of 
our muscle and nerve. And see here another 
circumstance which clearly proves that sugar 
and oil are intended by the Creator as the 
means by which our heat shall be sustained :— 
it is a most remarkable discovery of the lavst 
few years, that the gi'eat purpose of the liver is 
to convert this waste matter into sugar and 
into oil, for the purpose of being burnt off by 
the oxygen taken in through the lungs. There 
could not be, then, a clearer proof of the in¬ 
tention of the Creator that these two sub¬ 
stances should be our staple material for the 
production of heat,—that the formation of 
these is constantly going on in the body as a 
part of its regular processes, the interruption 
of which is attended with disease. Now we 
take in sugar as food :—Do we ever find that 
sugar converted into alcohol in the stomaoh ? 
No. It never happens in the healthy economy 
of the animal, any more than in the healthy 
economy of the plant. Now if alcohol were 
the very efficient food that some of its advo¬ 
cates maintain, do you not think we should 
find in the animal body a provision for turning 
sugar into alcohol ? So opposite is the fact, 
7 


74 


THE PILLAE OF SCIENCE. 


that we fiod every provision in the body 
against the formation of it, and for getting rid 
of it as quickly as possible. In the mean time 
it exerts a most injurious influence.’\l) 

Common sense would ask, what is the use 
of putting it in the body, if it will not stay 
there? Especially if we w^ant it to “stick to 
one’s ribs.” If we are to be nourished we 
must take into the body that which is really 
food, but alcohol cannot be such if the follow¬ 
ing evidence be considered. 

Professor Lehmann, in his ‘Physiological 
Chemistiy,’says “We cannot believe that 
Alcohol, Theine, etc., which produce such 
powerful re-actions on the Nervous System, 
belong to the class of substances capable of 
contributing towards the maintenance of the 
vital functions.”—Vol. iii. On Respiration. 

Professor Moleschott, of Erlangen, says : 
“ Alcohol does not effect any direct restitution, 
nor deserve the name of an alimentary principle’' 
— Lehre der Nahrungs-mittel, 1853. 

Dr. W. Bkinton, Physician to St. Thomas’s, 
says : “ Careful observation leaves little doubt 
that a moderate dose of beer or wune would, in 
most cases, at once diminish the maximum loeight 
which a healthy person could lift, to something 


(1) Pr. Carpenter. 



THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 75 

below Ills teetotal standard. In like manner, 
it is not too inucli to say, that mental acuienesSy 
accuracy of jyerccption, and delicacy of the sensesy 
are all so far opposed by alcohol, as that the 
maximum efforts of each are incompatible with 
the ingestion of any moderate quantity of fer¬ 
mented liquid. A single glass will often suffice 
to take the edge off both mind and body, and to 
reduce their capacity to something beloAv their 
perfection of work.”— Introduction to DieteticSy 
p. 389. 1861. 

“ The truth of this testimony is well illustra¬ 
ted in ancient times by Samson the Nazarite 
and Milo the Pythagorean ; in modern, bv the 
cases of Sayers and Heenan, the ‘muscular 
Christians by Blondin, the astonisliing per¬ 
former of dangcroiLS feats ; by 'VVaterton, the 
hardy natiu’alist; by Livingstone, the prince 
of missionaries ; and by Garabaldi, the great. 
The former examples show that teetotalism is 
necessary to the perfection of physical strength 
and endurance, the latter that it is favorable 
to mental and sjiiritual greatness. Both to¬ 
gether prove, that, by adopting Ti^etotalism, a 
man (as Tennyson sings) 

“ Might gain in sweetness and in moral height, 

Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world.”(l). 


(1) Dr. Lees’ “ Introduction to History of Alcohol ” 



76 


THE PILLAB OF SCIENCE. 


The following has been signed by upwards 
of 2,000 medical men, including many of the 
leading members of the profession :— 

“We are of opinion: —1st. That a very 
large portion of human misery, including 
poverty, disease and crime, is induced by the 
use of alcoholic or fermented liquors as beve¬ 
rages. 

“ 2nd. That the most perfect health is com¬ 
patible with total abstinence from all such 
intoxicating beverages, whether in the form of 
ardent spirits, or as Wine, Beer, Ale, Porter, 
Cider, &c., &c. 

“ 3rd. That persons accustomed to such 
drinks may with perfect safety discontinue 
them entirely, either at once, or gradually after 
a short time. 

“4th. That total and universal abstinence 
from alcoholic liquors, and intoxicating bever¬ 
ages of all sorts, would greatly contribute to 
the health, the prosperity, the morality, and 
the happiness of the human race.” 

Among other evidences of the growth of 
public opinion may be mentioned the fact that 
in the “ South Kensington Museum ” may be 
seen the following classified as Auxiliary 
FOODS ”! ! They are enclosed in glass cases, 
and the bottles are labelled. The contents of 


THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 77 


ail imperial pint of each, when analyzed, are 
said to contain the following things :— 


STRONG 

ALE. 


STOUT. 




OZ8. 

grs. 


OZS. 

grs. 

Water. 

...18 

0 

Water. 

184 

0 

Alcohol. 

.. 2 

0 

Alcohol. 

n 

0 

Sugar. 

... 2 

136 

Sugar. 

0 

281 

Acetic acid... 

... 0 

57 

Acetic acid. 

0 

54 




Gum. 

0 

131 

IVIILD 

ALE. 


Salts. 

0 

18 

Water. 

... 18| 

0 

Extractive. 

0 

408 

Alcohol. 

... 14 

0 




Sugar. 

... 0 

280 

PORTER. 


Acetic acid. ., 

... 0 

38 







Water. 

19 

111 

PALE 

ALE. 


Alcohol. 

0 

326 

Water. 

.. 18 

0 

Acetic acid.... 

0 

45 

Alcohol. 

.. 2 

0 

Gum. 

0 

54 

Sugar . 

.. 0 

240 

Salts. 

0 

22 

Acetic acid.... 

... 0 

40 

Extractive. 

0 

402 


“The following quantities are required to 
make three barrels of 4d. ale :— 

1 quarter of malt. 

8 lbs. hops. 

5 barrels—of 36 gallons each—of Water ! 

“ In brewing, 1 barrel, or 36 gallons, is lost 
■ by evaporation ; half a barrel, or eighteen 
gallons, in the process of fermentation and 
racking ; and half a barrel is absorbed by the 
grains.” 

The remainder must be very nourishing I 



























78 


THE PILLAE OF SCIENCE. 


“ The average quantity of alcohol consumed 
yearly in England, by each person, in the form 
of beer or spirits, is three gallons, 

“ The amount of barley destroyed ! in produc¬ 
ing the yearly average consumption of each 
person in England, is IJ bushel: that amount 
•would feed a full-gro^vn man for forty days. 

“About 550 millions of gallons of beer are 
brewed yearly in this country from malt 
“ Analysis of an imperial pint of 


POET. 

OZS. 

grs. 

EUM. 

OZS. 

grs. 

Water. 

16 

0 

Water. 

. 5 

0 

Alcohol. 

4 

0 

Alcohol. 

. 15 

0 

Sugar. 

1 

2 

Acetic acid..., 

. 0 

10 

Tartaric acid.... 

0 

80 

GIN—(Old 

Tom). 


BEANDY. 


Water. 

. 12 

0 




Alcohol. 

. 8 

0 

Water. 

n 

0 




Alcohol. 

104 

0 

GIN (Eetail). 


Sugar .. 

0 

80 

Water. 

. 16 

0 

Tartaric acid.... 

0 

120 

Alcohol. 

. 4 

0 




Sugar. 

. 04 

0 


Even Messrs. Brett, the distillers, announced 
in “ Bradshaw,” for three consecutive months, 
in 18G4, as a recommendation of their ‘Vin 
Bouge ’—natural wine of Erance—that it was 
port in character, rich in quality, free from 
spirit, and highly nutritious! 

“ A Daniel come to judgment,” surely I 
















THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 79 

If it is not food then, it cannot impart real 
strength. But it is often asked, “ Does it not 
assist digestion?'' 

“ ‘It is a remarkable fact,’ says Dr. Dundas 
Thompson, ‘ that alcohol, when added to the 
digestive fluid, produces a white precipitate, 
so that the fluid is no longer capable of digest¬ 
ing animal or vegetable matter.’ This preci¬ 
pitation is the coagulation of the pepsin, an 
essential element of the gastric juice. Those 
distinguished physiologists, Todd and Bow¬ 
man, in their late w^ork, say :—‘ The use of 
alcoholic stimulants also retards digestion by 
coagulating the pepsin, and thereby interfer¬ 
ing with its action. Were it not that wine and 
spirits are rapidly absorbed, the introduction 
of these into the stomach in any quantity, 
would be a complete bar to the digestion of 
the food, as the pepsin would be precipitated 
from solution as quickly as it w^as formed by 
the stomach.’ Alcoholic mixtures are there¬ 
fore promptly absorbed ; they penetrate the 
tissues of the stomach, and are quickly 
launched into the circulation. 

“ How mischievous, then, is the ingestion of 
alcoholic drinks, particularly during meals! 
How absurd the popular and but too often 
medical delusion, that they assist or promote 


80 


THE PILLAR OP SCIENCE. 


digestion! And how atrocious the quackery 
of prescribing these drinks—bitter beer, for 
instance—for such a purpose! So true is all 
this, that Professors Todd and Bowman, in 
their great and standard work—‘ The Physio¬ 
logical Anatomy of Man’—declare that ‘ were 
those drinks not rapidly absorbed from the 
stomach, it would be utterly impossible that 
digestion could go on in those who use 
them!’ 

“Hold a mouthful of spirits—whisky, for 
instance—in your mouth for five minutes, and 
you will find it burn severely; inspect the 
mouth, you will observe that it is inflamed. 
Hold it for ten or fifteen minutes, and you will 
find that various parts of the interior of the 
mouth have become blistered; then tie a 
handkerchief over the eyes, and taste, for in¬ 
stance, water, vinegar, milk, or senna : you 
will find that you are incapable of distinguish¬ 
ing the one from the other. This simple and 
easy experiment proves to a certainty that 
alcohol is not only a violent irritant, but also 
a narcotic; for, in this experiment you have 
objective evidence that it has inflamed, and 
blistered the mouth, and subjective evidence 
that it has also, for the time being, paralysed 
the nerves of taste, and, to a certain extent, 


THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 81 

those also of common sensation, ^ow, this is 
not an experiment or fact upon which any 
doubt has ever been or ever can be thrown; 
and I ask you, can you beheve that the still 
more tender and more important internal 
organs of the body can be less injuriously 
affected than the mouth?” (1) 

“Even the moderate use of such liquors, if 
long continued, and grown habitual, cannot 
fail to have ultimately a prejudicial effect upon 
the health, while it may be confidently as¬ 
serted that there are no circumstances, of 
ordinary character, under which it can be 
justified as beneficial or nece^mry’" (2) 

So far back as 1839 the same truth was 
taught, as witness the following testimony :— 
“Spirits (alcohol,)” says the Edinburgh 
Medical Journal, “ have no share in that 
assimilation of the blood which other articles 
of diet possess, since it has been declared by 
high authority, that sjjirit is not in any quan¬ 
tity miscible with the blood, and is not 
capable of assimilation with its elements when 
introduced into the current of circulation. It 
is a body altogether foreign, acts in all re¬ 
spects like a poisonous agent, however feebly, 
and the effects which it appears to produce in 


(1) Dr. M’CuUoch. (2) Dr. Wilson. 



82 


THE PILLAB OF SCIENCE. 


the way of stimulation (irritation ?; or excite¬ 
ment, are manifestly due to its retarding the 
motion of the blood in the capillaries, and 
producing there temporary stagnation and 
congestion. It is a foreign body, which ex¬ 
cites the blood and tissues to reaction, in 
order to resist its presence and introduction, 
and the reaction continues so long as it is 
present.” 

But what becomes of alcohol when taken in the 
body ? This has been the question which has 
continually turned up among the medical 
profession. More than twenty years ago. Dr. 
Percy proved that, when introduced into the 
system, it seeks the brain by preference and 
local affinity, more of it being found there than 
in an equal weight of blood; it is therefore 
attracted out of the blood into the cerebral 
substance. He proved it by distilling the 
brain and blood of men and animals that had 
died from intoxication, and separating the 
alcohol in such quantity that it could be identi¬ 
fied by the double test of inflammability and 
power of dissolving camphor. But this was a 
rough procedure, and, although satisfactoiy 
for Dr. Percy’s purpose, was not sufficiently 
nice for the necessities of severe scientific in¬ 
quiry. Consequently, from time to time, fresh 


THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 83 

eyidence has been accumlating, certainly most 
favorable to temperance. 

Sir Astley Cooper was amongst the first to 
declare that “we have all been mistaken in 
these things, we have considered them as 
restoratives, and nutritious, we now find that 
they are merely stimulants.” (?) 

While, in 1863, we find this also denied by 
Dr. T. King Chambers, whoj in his ‘ Clinical 
Lectures,’ says :— 

What is a stimulant ? It is usually held 
to be something which spurs on an animal to 
a more vigorous performance of all its duties. 
It seems doubtful if, on the healthy nervous 
system, this is ever the effect of alcohol, even 
in the most moderate doses, and for the short¬ 
est periods of time. A diminution of force is 
quite consistent with augmented quickness of 
motion, or may it not be said that, in involun¬ 
tary muscles, it implies it. The action of 
chloroform is to quicken the pulse, yet the 
observations of Dr. Bedford Brown on the 
circulation in the human cerebrum during 
anaesthesia, clearly show that the propelling 
power of the heart is disminished during that 
state. It is clear that we must cease to re¬ 
gard alcohol as in any sense an aliment, inas¬ 
much as it goes out as it went in, and does not, 


84 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


SO far as we know, leave any of its substance 
beliind it.”(l) 

At another time we find that alcohol was 
praised for its heat-giving properties by Pro¬ 
fessor Liebig; because (as he said) it was 
burnt up in the body like sugar and fat, it 
was therefore ranked as food, although some 
years before Dr. Davy, F.E.S., Inspector 
General of Army Hospitals, published a very 
simple and yet conclusive experiment by 
which we learn, that if you place the bulb of 
a delicate thermometer under the tongue of a 
healthy person, then shut his mouth and 
raise his head, you will find that the mercury 
will rise to about 98° ; take it out and give 
the person a few glasses of wine—say three or 
four of sherry or port, or an equivalent 
quantity of any other alcoholic drink—and in 
four minutes replace the thermometer and you 
will find that the mercury has fallen, and will 
continue to fall for some time.(2) 

A writer in the Westminster Review^ in an 
article published in 1855, entitled the 
‘ Physiological Errors of Teetotalism,’ made an 
ingenious and plausible plea for its alimentary 

(1) “ Kenewal of iife.” Lond., 1863. 

^2) See Philosophical Transactions of the Koyal So¬ 
ciety of London. Vol. ii.—1845. pp. 324-5. 



THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 85 

character, which was widely circulated and 
applauded. The fallacies of this argument 
were exposed at the time. Meanwhile, 
science has been busy pushing forward the 
investigation, and has lately reached results 
which so decisively settle the point against 
the alimentary properties of alcoholic liquors, 
that even the Westminster Beview, “ faithful to 
the revelation of science, rather than mindful 
of consistency,” retracted its former views, 
and published an extended account of the re¬ 
cent experiments bearing upon the subject. 
To these we shall presently refer. 

Science has clearly demonstrated also that 
Alcohol is a Poison. In order that the full 
force of this may be seen, let us briefly notice 
the laws which govern the local action of 
poisons. 

Now the same law of local attraction which 
governs nutriment and medicines, controls 
also the physiological action of poisons. Poi¬ 
sonous agents act by special affinities on 
particular parts, where they produce their 
morbid, disorganizing, or fatal effects. A 
writer of high authority in toxicology. Dr. 
Christison, says, ‘‘ Poisons are commonly, but 
I conceive erroneously, said to effect remotely 
the general system. A few of them, indeed, 
8 


86 


TKE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


appear to affect a great number of tbe organs 
of tbe body ; hut much the larger proportion 
seem, on the contrary, to act on one or more 
organs only, and not on the general system. 
Thus, for example, arsenic in poisonous doses 
attacks and inflames the mucous membrane of 
the alimentary passages ; strychnine takes 
effect upon the spinal cord ; and lead fastens 
upon the muscles of the wrist, paralyzing 
them, and producing what is known among 
painters and white lead manufacturers as wrist 
drop. The disturbance occasioned by the 
poisonous agent may not be confined to a 
single part ; yet, under the action of this 
fundamental law of the constitution, the ten¬ 
dency of poison is to seek out and fasten upon 
particular portions of the organism which 
first and most directly suffer from their ac- 

tion.”(l) 

Alcohol, in fact, is no sooner taken into the 
stomach, than the whole powers of the system 
are concentrated to get rid of the foe. In 
further proof of which Dr. Chambers says, “ It 
is lucky for us that alcohol passes so freely 
out of the body and Dr. M’Culloch adds, al¬ 
cohol evidently poisons the blood by setting 
the fatty matter free from organic combination 


(1) “On Poisons. 



THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 87 

and greatly increasing tlie colorless globules ; 
frequently lowers its temperature below its 
healthy and natural standard ; and causes the 
retention of carbonic acid, and effete, decay¬ 
ing matter in that fluid.” 

“ In whatever form the inebriating beverage 
may be consumed, it is the alcohol, or spiiit of 
wine, which constitutes the intoxicating ingre¬ 
dient. But that fluid cannot be received into 
the stomach, in its undiluted state, even in no 
large quantity, without the production of im¬ 
mediately fatal consequences.”(1) 

‘‘ Many persons, in order to get rid of un¬ 
pleasant reflections, are in the habit of saying, 
^ I take so little, and therefore cannot be injured 
by it.’ But this remark arises from ignorance. 
One drop of alcohol would flU a tube, whose 
length and diameter are the eighth of an inch. 
If you decrease the diameter one-half, you 
must prolong the tube four times, if you wish 
it to contain the same amount of liquid ; this 
is not a conjecture, but a mathematical fact. 
Well, then, go on decreasing the diameter 
of the tube in question, and proportionably 
prolonging it until you get a capillary as small 
as the smallest blood vessel in the human 
body, the tube will be of an astonishing length* 


(1) Wilson’s “Pathology. 



1 


88 THE PILLAE OF SCIENCE. 

demonstrating that one single drop of alcohol 
when passed into the minute vessels of the hu¬ 
man frame will be sufficient to cover over 
nearly the whole surface of the body, and con¬ 
sequently is an inflammatory poison capable 
of deranging our health to a great degree. 
What, then, must be the mischief effected by 
the daily taking of a wine glass or more of 
this pernicious spirit? To talk of modera¬ 
tion in the use of alcohol is absurd; the only 
moderation here is abstinence.'’{1) 

Dr. Chambers remarks, “ the action' of fre¬ 
quent small divided drams, is to produce the 
greatest amount of harm of which alcohol is 
capable, with the least amount of good.” And 
again, “ The warming of the stomach, which 
tipplers speak of with so much delight, is in 
fact a mere fallacy of insensibility to exter¬ 
nal influence. We may, I think, fairly come 
to the conclusion, that alcohol is primarily and 
essentially a lessener of the power of the nervous 
system,”—in other words, an Ancesthetic. 

“ Our feelings are not always an index of 
the mischief that is being engendered by per¬ 
sistence in a bad habit, it is only when the evil 


(1) Parsons’ “Anti-Bacchus. 



THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 89 

is done and without remedy we become sensi¬ 
ble of it.”(l) 

That great wit and celebrated writer, Sydney 
Smith, was a free drinker, bul not a drunkard, 
for the greater part of his life ; latterly he be¬ 
came an abstainer. After being one for a year, 
he, in a letter to Lady Holland, in his cjuaint 
way, illustrates this in the following remarks : 
—“ Many thanks for your kind anxiety respect¬ 
ing my health. I not only was never better, 
but-never half so well. Indeed, I find I have 
been very ill all my life, without knowing it. 
Let me state some of the good arising from 
abstaining from all fermented liciuors. First, 
sweet sleep, having never known what such 
sleep was ; I sleep like a baby or a plough-boy. 
If I wake, no needless terrors, no black vi^ ions 
of life, but pleasing hopes and pleasing recol¬ 
lections : Holland House past and to come! 
If I dream, it is not of lions and tigers, but of 
Easter-dues and tithes. Secondly, I can take 
longer w^alks, and make greater exertions, with¬ 
out fatigue. My understanding is improved 
and I comprehend political economy. I see 
better without wine and spectacles than w hen 
I used both. Only one evil ensues from it; 
I am in such extravagant spirits that I must 


(1) Ward’s “Science Health. 



90 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


lose Llood, or look out for some one who will 
bore and distress me. Pray, leave off wine— 
the stomach quite at rest; no heart-burn, no 
pain, no distension —showing that he never 
knew what real, joyous, unalloyed health was, 
until he gave up the use of the poison. 

But “What are the Effects of Alcohol 
UPON the General System? —When alcoholic 
liquors are taken in sufficient quantity to pro¬ 
duce their peculiai’ results, the first effect we 
notice is an increase in the speed mth which 
the blood flows through the system. This is 
shown by the increased force and rapidity 
with which the heart beats, and by the fuller, 
stronger and more frequent pulse. With this 
there seems to be a general exaltation of the 
functions of the body. The appetite is sharp¬ 
ened and the secretions augmented, esiiecially 
those of the skin and kidneys. The brain is 
also affected ; for there is the evidence of men¬ 
tal and emotive disturbance, such as unusual 
talkativeness, rapidity and variety of thought, 
exhilaration of the spirits, animation of the 
features and gestures, flushed countenance, and 
suffusion of the eyes. In short, all the vital 
functions are moving at an accelerated rate. 
If more liquor be taken, the excitement is 
heightened, rising into complete perversion of 


THE rOim PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 91 

all the powers, intellectual and corporeal. The 
mind becomes confused and oblivious, the eyes 
are vacant or glazed, the voice is thick, and 
the muscular movements tremulous and un- 
stt-ady. In the profounder stages of intoxi¬ 
cation, the action of the mind is completely 
broken down, and the individual falls into a 
heavy, toi’pid slumber, from wliich it may be 
difficult or impossible to arouse him. This 
train of phenomena, variously modified in dif¬ 
ferent instances, constitutes the outward and 
visible marks of progressive drunkenness, and 
is accompanied by certain demonstrated inter¬ 
nal effects, involving the respiratory and circu¬ 
latory processes.” (1) 

J. A. Clement, Esq., M.D., mayor of Shrews¬ 
bury, at the opening of the Workman’s Hall, 
remarked : “ t think that there cannot be in 
the world a sight more sad than to see a man 
quench reason and conscience in strong drink 
—raising a suicidal arm against his higher life, 
and becoming something worse than a brute. 
But this is not all. Intemperance spreads its 
miseries beyond itself. The drunkard draws 
his family, if not into his guilt, at leas»t into his 
woe ; and the bitter fruits of his vice are a 
cheerless home, a cold hearth, a scanty board, 


(1) Youinans on “ AlcohoL 



92 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


a broken-hearted wife, and children brought 
up in crime and shame. I will give a littlo 
medical advice vdthout a fee to my friends, 
and to my working fellow-townsmen. Now, 
occasionally, I do prescribe, as medicine, 
poisons, and amongst these ^isons, sometimes, 
but as rarely as possible, I order the use of 
ardent spirits; but let the working man be 
assured that unless ardent spirits are taken as 
a medicine, they are more dreadful in their 
effects than a pestilence. They give you no 
strength, they only stimulate you (?), and even 
when used in moderate doses they are perni¬ 
cious and do great injury both to body and 
mind, and have hurried countless thousands 
to premature {graves.” 

In April, 1864, a Malt-tax agitator, having 
said that the clever Dr. T. P. Heslop, of Bir¬ 
mingham, had told him that ale and beer were 
*‘the most wholesome drinks in existence, 
except milk,” the doctor was compelled to 
repudiate the nonsense as follows :— 

“ I feel so strongly that the majority of man¬ 
kind and womankind, under ordinary circuTn,- 
stances, get through life better and enjoy it longer 
by abstaining totally from all fermented liquors, 
that I must not allow any mistake to exist 


THE FOUE PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 93 

regarding my opinions, as they have been so 
publicly alluded to. 

“ The responsibility of my profession, both 
on moral and physical grounds, in view of this 
great social question, is so serious that T ven¬ 
ture to inform your readers that they may 
confidently expect a decided change in current 
opinions and habits. An illustrious surgeon 
of the Metropohs told his assembled brethren 
in the autumn of 1862, the pendulum of 
opinion (relative to stimulation) was beginning to 
swing m the opposite direction.' He was allud¬ 
ing to the excesses practised at the bed-side 
under the counsels of an alcoholic fanatic, whose 
medical career was, happily for mankind, cut 
short a few years ago, when at the head of 
London practice.” 

“ The habit of indulging too freely in spirit¬ 
uous beverages, even without their producing 
intoxication, is often attended at first with no 
apparent evil result, and there is little or no 
warning given of the injury done to the con¬ 
stitution ; but sooner or later, the injurious 
effects will become obvious.”(l) 

It would require a volume to give a detailed 
account of the various alcoholic theories which 
have been held by the medical profession dur- (*) 


(*) Marcet, “Chronic AlcohoHsm. 



94 THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 

ing the last thirty years, some of them “ wide 
as the poles asunder we hasten therefore 
just to glance at the present state of the mat¬ 
ter, especially at a few of the more recent 
investigations, which have so completely vindi¬ 
cated the teachings of the temperance re¬ 
formers. 

Dr. Edward Smith, F.K.S., in 1859, per- * 
formed a series of valuable experiments, re¬ 
corded in the Philosophical Transactions, 
illustrating the mode of action of Alcohol. 
Amongst his conclusions were the following :— 
Alcohol is probably not transformed, and 
does not increase the j^f'oduction of heat by its 
own chemical action. 

“ The action of the skin is lessened, whereby 
the loss of heat is reduced, and the sensation of 
warmth increased. [In other words as a 
narcotic, it arrests the process of evaporation 
from the skin.] 

“ It interferes with alimentation. Its power 
to lessen the salivary secretion must impede the 
due digestion of starch. 

“ It greatly lessens musculai\tone and power. 

“ There is no evidence that it increases ner¬ 
vous inhuence, whilst there is much evidence 
that it lessens the nervous power^ as shown by 
the mind and muscles. 


THE FOUE PILLAES OF TEMPEEANCE. 95 

“ For all medicinal and dietetic purposes, I 
venture to affirm that the dose only affects the 
degree and not the direction of the influence. 

“ Alcohol is not a true food ; and it neither 
warms nor sustains the body by the elements 
of which it is composed. 

Psychological actions (after a moderate dose, 
taken first thing in a morning by himself and 
friends). In from three to seven minutes the 
mind was disturbed. Consciousness, the power 
of fixing attention, the perception of light, and 
the power of directing and co-ordinating the 
muscles, were lessened. After thirty minutes 
the effect diminished, as shown by increased 
consciousness and the perception of light, as if 
a veil had fallen from the eyes.'' 

Dr. Smith’s experiments were providentially 
followed in 1860, by the great French work 
“ On the role of Alcohol and the Anaesthetics 
in the Organism,” in which are detailed an 
admirable series of experiments performed with 
a no less admirable apparatus, on dogs and 
men, by the distinguished physiologists, Pro¬ 
fessors Lallemand and Peeein, assisted by the 
chemist Dueoy.(I) 

The experiments of Drs. Lallemand and 

(l)'The matter following up to page 106 is Dr. Lees’ 
translation and exposition of the French work. 



96 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


Pen*iii on alcohol, are, in fact, the sequel to a 
series which they had been instituting for years 
past as to the peculiar operation of anaesthetic 
agents in general. Dr. Kudolf Masing had 
discovered a new and more-certain method of 
detecting alcohol and chloroform in the blood 
and tissues, (1) whereby they establish the fact, 
that when chloroform is inbreathed, it is 
received in substance into the blood, and con¬ 
veyed to the brain, from which it may be 
extracted after death ; but whenever inhalation 
is suspended, the chloroform is quickly exhaled 
by the breath, never oxydized. Turning to 
alcohol, they prove its absorption into the 
blood, and its subsequent passage to the 
nervous-centres. Next, they seek for it in the 
breath, making two men, to whom they ad¬ 
minister brandy, breathe through an apparatus 
for condensing the vapor of the lungs, and 
then distilling the liquor. Not a trace of 
alcohol was detected by this method ; and yet 
alcohol was there; which evinces the small 
value of that mere negative evidence upon which 

(1) The test is prepared by carefully dissolving one 
part of bichromate of potass in 300 parts of pure sul¬ 
phuric acid, and it is used by passing the breath through 
about a drachm of it placed at the bottom of a tube six 
or eight inches long ; for illustration see p. 99. 



THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 97 

Liebig and his school confidently built so 
much. A tube, holding a solution of bichro¬ 
mate of potash and sulphuric acid, was placed 
at the end of the apparatus. This is a red 
liquor, which, by the action of certain organic 
compounds, changes to an emerald green, the 
chromic acid becoming green oxide o/ chro¬ 
mium. Now, it was noted that the expired 
air, after the condensing of the vapor, quickly 
turned the red liquor green, as it passed along 
the tube. With this new test they proceeded 
to question nature, and soon found that the 
breath of people who had recently taken no 
alcohol, left the solution unchanged in its 
color. The inference was plain—that the 
alteration was due either to alcohol or its de¬ 
rivatives, aldehyde or acetic acid, in the breath. 

They next carefully analyzed the blood of 
animals to which alcohol had been given, in 
order to detect the presence of aldehyde: not 
a trace could be found. They subjected the 
blood and brain of animals poisoned by alcohol 
to the chromic-acid test, and the results agi-eed 
with the proofs furnished by the distillation of 
alcohol itself from those portions of the body. 

Having thus satisfied themselves of the trust¬ 
worthiness of the new test, aiid, indeed, as 
compared with distillation, of its superior 


98 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


sensitiveness, they proceed to inquire, ‘ What 
becomes of alcohol in the body ? ’ 

The solution was again prepared, of definite 
strength, and a given quantity put into a glass 
tube of a certain diameter. When the breath, 
charged with alcohol, passed through the 
liquor, it changed from red to green, thus 
furnishing a fixed standard of comparison. 
Quickly as the conversion of color was com¬ 
plete, one tube was exchanged for another, 
until no further change could be perceived. 
Thus, in one experiment, where a man con¬ 
cludes at 10.30 his breakfast, with a htre of 
red wine (1.7-lOth pint), of ten per cent, of 
alcohol, his breath at. 12 and 1 o’clock p. m. 
converts a centimetre (1) of the test liquid in 
two minutes ; at 2 p. m. in four minutes ; at 
4 o’clock in ten minutes ; at 5 p. m. in fifteen 
minutes; while at 6 but a partial change is 
visible ; at 7, none at all. Thus gradually, but 
surely, is the poison cast out of the system. 

There may be seen in the Auxiliary Food 
Department of the South Kensington Museum, 
three bottles which beautifully illustrate these 
discoveries. In the first bottle is a liquid of 

(1) A centimetre is the 0.39371 of an English inch. 
A cubic centimetre is .06102 cubic inch. A gramme is 
15.44579 grains troy. 



THE FOUE PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 99 

a bright orange red color. In the second 
bottle (which has a glass tube inserted at the 
top), the liquor is of a different color : this is 
explained on a card which states, “ The same 
TURNED green after ha’ving been breathed 
through for half-an-hour by a person, who had 
taken half-an-hour before, a glass of brandy.'* 
In a THIRD bottle, there is the orange color 
again, with a card attached, on which it says, 
“ The same unchanged, after having been 
breathed through by a teetotaler half-an- 
hour !!» 

The Urine being subjected to the same test, 
at the same periods, sixty grammes at noon 
yield alcoholic vapor sufficient to transmute 
the color of sixteen cubic centimetres of the 
solution; at 2 o’clock the same quantity 
changed the color of fifteen cubic centimetres ; 
at 4 p. m. twelve ; at 6 p. m. ten ; at 8 o’clock 
four; at 10 p. m. one, At midnight the 
reaction was hardly perceptible. After the use 
of even a bottle of weak wine, the kidneys 
would secrete alcohol for the long j)eriod of 
fourteen hours. 

The Skin is also proved to be an organ for 
the elimination of the poison. Even an intox¬ 
icated dog (an animal not remarkable for the 
activity of its perspiration) was found to exhale 


100 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


alcohol, when placed in a glass case, with its 
head out. 

In the case of a strong man, who died in 
thii’ty-two hours after drinking a pint of 
brandy, and notwithstanding that emetico 
brought back part of the half-pint of alcohol, 
the spirit was detected in abundance, not only 
in brain and liver, but in the blood. 

Under the head of ‘ Applications to Physi¬ 
ology,’ our authors ask, “What is the mode of 
action of an aliment?” (p. 132.) Citing the 
experiment in which, after the use of thirty 
grammes of alcohol, the poison was found in 
the breath after eight hours, and in the urine 
after fourteen, they say : “No ahment, plastic 
or respiratory, ingested, except in excess, 
escapes a normal transformation ; it is never 
found unchanged in the products of excretion, 
being either completely metamorphosed in the 
organism, or partiajly converted into fatty 
matter.” Our authors also completely vindi¬ 
cate the old definitions of food and poison 
given by the Temperance teachers. They show 
most lucidly, for example, that moderate ex¬ 
citement is simply a loicer degree of the same 
hind of abnormal stimulation which is kno^vn 
as inebriation, and that alcohol never gives 
force, but merely wastes it. 


THE FOUE PILLAES OF TEMPEEANCE. 101 

Facts establish, from a physiological point 
of view, a line of demarcation between alcohol 
andfoods. These latter restore the forces, with¬ 
out the organism betraying, by disturbed func¬ 
tions or by outward agitation, the labor of 
reparation, which is accomplished silently in the 
woof of the tissues. Alcohol, on the other hand, 
immediatelyeven in a moderate dose, 
an excitement which extends through the 
entire economy. 

At page 229 is given the following resume^ 
which we may call the ‘ Alcoholic Alphabet ’ :— 

A. —Alcohol, ingested into the stomach, applied 

to the skin, or introduced as vapor into 
the lungs, is absorbed by the veins, and 
carried by the blood into all the tissues. 

B. —The injection of alcohol produces upon 

animals an intoxication that is marked by 
a progressive series of functional disturbances 
and alterations, the intensity of which coi'res- 
ponds with the quantity of alcohol absorbed, 

C. —It manifests itself at first by a general ex¬ 

citement ; • but, by-and-by, the respiration 
and circulation are relaxed and the tem¬ 
perature lowered. 

P .—The muscular power is weakened and ex¬ 
tinguished ; always beginning at the ex¬ 
tremities. 


102 THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 

£i.—^The insensibility gradually extends to tbe 
centres (as in dead drunkenness). 

F. —The heart is the last to die (uUimum mo-- 

Hens ). 

G. —The time that elapses between the begicr 

ning of intoxication and death varies from 
forty-five minutes to three hours. 

H. —When the dose is not sufficient to induce 

death, the excitability of the nervous sys¬ 
tem retui’ns after a tune, varying with cir¬ 
cumstances. 

I. —The arterial blood remains bright, and 

preserves all its apparent qualities nearly 
up to the moment of death. 
^.--Alcoholized blood contains, during life and 
after death, a great number offree fatty glo¬ 
bules, visible even to the nafced eye. 

K. —The pathological alterations are : very 

vivid inflammation of the mucous membrane 
of the stomach; the accumulation of blood 
in the right chamber of the heart and the 
large veins; congestion of the meninges, 
and especially of the lungs. 

L. —All solids or liquids in union with alcohol 

are easily separated by distillation^ or 
proportionately, by the method of vol¬ 
umes. 

M. — Alcohol, taken by the stomach, accumulates 


THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 103 

in the liver, and the substance of the brain; 
if in the blood it is represented as 1*0 ; in 
the brain it is 1*34 ; in the liver 1-48. 

N. —Diluted alcohol produces the same effect' 

when introduced by injection into the 
veins as when taken into the stomach, 
but operates more rapidly. The animal 
succumbs in less than twenty minutes 

O. —Alcohol, injected into the veins, spreads 

to all the tissues, but accumulates most 
largely in the brain ; being in the liver, 
1*75 ; in the cerebral matter, 3. 

P. —Death by alcoholic poisoning is due prima¬ 

rily to its special action upon the nervous 
centres. 

Q. —After the ingestion of a small dose of 

brandy (25 grammes = 360 grains), the 
blood continues to manifest the presence 
of alcohol by chemical reactions for many 
hours. 

K.— We never founds in either the blood or tis¬ 
sues, any of the derivatives of alcohol. 

S. —Only in the stomach was found a trace of 

acetic acid, generated from alcohol by the 
ferment of the gastric juice. 

T. —Alcohol is rejected from the vital economy 

by divers systems of elimination, by the 
lungs, the skin, and the kidneys. 


104 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


U. —These organs are found to eliminate al¬ 

cohol after the ingestion of doses very 
small. 

V. —The elimination lasts many hours, even 

after an ingestion very moderate. The 
kidneys continue longest to reject it. 

X. —Aldehyde, introduced into the stomach, 

is readily found in the blood. 

Y. —The aldehyde is, in great part, eliminated; 

in part transformed into acetic acid. 

Z. —Alcohol has the same action, and produces 

the same effects upon men and uj)on the 
lower animals. 

Finally, we translate the ‘Conclusions’ to 
which these experimenters have been con¬ 
ducted :— 

1. Alcohol is not food. 

2. Alcohol is a special modifier of the ner¬ 
vous system. It acts in a feeble dose, as an 
excitant; in a larger, as a stupefiant. 

3. Alcohol is never transformed, never de¬ 
stroyed in the organism. 

^ 4. Alcohol accumulates, by a sort of elective 
affinity, in the brain, and in the liver. 

5. Alcohol is eliminated from the organism 
in totality and in nature. The channels of 
elimination are: the lungs, the skin, and, 
above all, the kidneys. 


THE FOUB PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 105 

6. Alcohol has a pathogenetic influence, 
material and direct, upon the development of 
many functional disturbances and organic al¬ 
terations of the brain, liver, and the kidneys. 

7. Spirituous di’inks owe to the alcohol they 
contain their common properties and the 
specialty of their effects. The use of fer¬ 
mented and distilled liquors is often noxious : 
it should be always very restrained ; it should 
never be tolerated, save in exceptional circum¬ 
stances. 

“ Our authors, nevertheless, are not teeto¬ 
talers ; they go for light wines ; on the 
principle, we suppose, that a minim of evil is 
a modicum of good! Their labors, how¬ 
ever, are none the worse that their practice 
lags behind their theory, which is no uncom¬ 
mon event in this disjointed world of human 
nature. We rejoice, once more, that experi¬ 
ment ha» been made again to confirm the 
decisions of experience. In this manner, dur¬ 
ing the last thirty years, Providence has 
compelled science to lay successive offerings 
upon the altar of Temperance ; and often, as 
in the present instance, through the medium 
of the reluctant hands and unsubmissive 
appetites of a disobedient priesthood.”(l) 


(1) ‘Meliora,’ (April, 1862). 




106 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


In the Medico-Ghirargical Eeciew for July’s 
1861, Dr. T. K. Chambers says :— 

“ It might have been anticipated, a pr iori, 
that the diminished vitality which accom¬ 
panies the use of alcohol should lead to a 
diathesis of general degeneration. No part of 
the body seems exempt, but it is of course 
most notably manifested in those organs 
which are of the first necessity, such as the 
liver and the kidneys. 

“ Earhest probably of all parts of the body this 
degeneration commences in the blood. Dr. 
Bocker noticed the alterations undergone by the 
blood of habitual alcohol-drinkers as yet in 
good health—namely, a partial loss of power 
to become red by exposure to the air, in con¬ 
sequence of the loss of vitality in a portion 
of the blood-discs. (1) This loss of vitality 
manifests itself by the formation of black 
specks (oil) in the discs, and then by their 
conversion into the round pale globules 
which, in all cases of disease {i.e. of diminished 
vitality), are found in excess in the blood. 
This devitalized condition of the nutritive fluid 

(1) This fact was noticed by Dr. Schultz twenty years 
ago See Lees’ ‘ History of Alcohol, ’ p. 42. New to 
the English doctors—familiar to the temperance advo¬ 
cate. 



THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 107 

is probably the first step to the de-vitalization of 
the tissues which it feeds. 

“ To recapitulate : we think that the evi¬ 
dence, so far as it has yet gone, shows the ao‘ 
tion of alcohol upon life to be consistent and uni¬ 
form in all its phases, and to be always exhibited 
as an arrest of vitality. In a condition of health 
it acts in some measure immediately on the 
extremities of the nervous system by direct 
contact, and is also carried through the uni¬ 
versal thoroughfare of the circulation to the 
brain. To nerve-tissue chiefly it adheres, and 
testifies its presence by arresting the functions 
of that tissue, for good or for evil. The most 
special exhibition of disease is in the special 
function of the nervous system, the life of rela¬ 
tion, to perform the duties of which the de¬ 
vitalized nerve becomes inadequate. Then 
the vegetable life suffers; the forms of tissue 
become of a lower class—of a class which de¬ 
mands less vitality for growth and nourish¬ 
ment—connective fibre takes the place of the 
gland, and oil of connective fibre. The circu¬ 
lation retains, indeed, its industrious activity, 
but receives and transmits a less valuable, less 
living freight, and thus becomes the cause, as well 
as the effect, of diminished vitality.” 

Dr. Lionel S. Beale, M.D., F.B.S., physician 


108 


THE PILLAB OF SCIENCE. 


to King’s College Hospital, the eminent 
microscopist, in a paper read before the Bristol 
meeting of the British Medical Association, 
published in the British Medical Journal, Oct. 
10th, 1863, thus defined the medical action of 
alcohol:—“Alcohol does not act as food; it 
does not nourish tissues ; it may diminish 
waste by altering the consistence and chemical 
properties of fiuids and solids. • It cuts short 
the life of rapidly growing cells, or causes them 
to live more slowly ; and thus tends to cause a 
diseased structure, in which vital changes are 
abnormally active, to return to its normal and 

less active condition.The remedies 

which act favorably really seem to act not by 
increasing vital power, but by decreasing the 
rate at which vital changes are proceeding. 

.This view of the action of alcohol 

accounts for the many broad facts familiar to 
all. It accounts for the shrivelling s, of the 
hepatic cells, the shrinking of the secretive 
structure, and the increased hardness and 
condensation of the entire liver, which result 
from the continual bathing of the gland struc¬ 
ture in blood loaded with alcohol. It accords 
with the gradual shrinking and condensation of 
tissues which occur in persons who have long 
been accustomed to excess. The tendency to 




THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE 109 

increased formation of adipose tissue, which 
occurs in persons who live generously, and 
seems to be augmented by alcohol, may be 
exjdained upon the same view; and the stunt* 
ing which follows its exhibition to young 
animals is readily accounted for.” 

The important conclusions warranted by 
these researches may be best stated in the 
language of the Westminster Review :— 

“ The striking accordance which has thus 
been shown to exist in every fundamental par¬ 
ticular between alcohol and the anaesthetics— 
the differences in their behavior being only of 
a secondary character, and being obviously 
referable to their chemical and physical pro¬ 
perties—must surely be regarded as most 
strikingly confirmatory of the position taken 
up by the authors of this treatise in antago¬ 
nism to the Liebigian doctrine that alcohol is 
food. For there is not a single point of dif¬ 
ference in their actions which can justify their 
being placed in different categories. Their 
nhysiological effects in large doses are essen¬ 
tially the same. Their special affinity for the 
substance of the brain and of the liver is a 
most striking point of conformity. Whether 
alcohol be taken into the stomach, or the vapor 
of chloroform or ether be inhaled through the 
10 


110 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


lungs, no sooner has it been received into the 
circulating current than it is treated as a sub¬ 
stance altogether foreign to the body, which is 
to be removed by the excretory organs as 
rapidly as possible. Those organs begin to 
diminish it until the blood has been entirely 
freed fi’om it; and then, but not till then, its 
perverting influence upon the nervous func¬ 
tions ceases to be manifested. There is no 
more evidence of alcohol being utilised in the 
body than there is in regard to ether or chlo¬ 
roform. If alcohol is to be still designated as 
food, we must extend the meaning of that 
term so as to make it comprehend not only 
ether and chloroform, but all medicines and 
poisons—in fact, everything that can be swal¬ 
lowed or absorbed, however foreign it may be 
to the normal constitution of the body, and 
however injurious to its functions. 

“ On the other hand, from no definition that 
can be framed of a poison which should in¬ 
clude those more powerful anaesthetic agents 
whose poisonous character has been unfortu¬ 
nately too clearly manifested in a great num¬ 
ber of instances, can alcohol be fairly shut out.” 

One of the most interesting features of the 
movement has been the rapid growth of opin¬ 
ion among the medical profession, that alcohol 


rHE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. Ill 

is not only unnecessary as an article of diet, 
but of equally doubtf ul service even as a medi¬ 
cine. We cannot do better than place on 
record tbe experience of a few who have dared 
to leave the beaten track, and ascertain for 
themselves whether or no the ‘ alcoholic theory* 
would stand the test of experience. One of 
the earliest to dispute the accepted dogma 
was Mr. Higginbottam, the eminent smgeon of 
Nottingham. In a letter dated August, 1836, 
he said^ to his friend, who was troubled with 
an affection of the throat; ‘‘ I want you to 
give a fair and full trial of total abstinence from 
all intoxicating liquors, and also from tobacco 
in every form. I am fully persuaded that 
many chronic diseases are brought on and 
continued by their use. I consider I shall do 
more in curing disease, and preventing disease, 
in one year, by prescribing total abstinence, than I 
coidd do in the ordinary course of an extensive 
practice of one hundred years. I have already 
seen diseases cured by total abstinence that would 
not have been cured by any other means. If all 
intoxicating drinks and tobacco were banished 
fi'oni the earth, it would be a real blessing to 
society, and in a few weeks they would never 
be missed, not even as a medicine. No one can 
for a moment doubt, that alcohol can pass 


112 


THE PTLLAE OF SCIENCE. 


throng’ll parts of the body in a state of irrita¬ 
tion or inflammation, but the part must be 
f urther injured, and I have no doubt that 
thousands fall into a premature grave by the 
temporary relief from exhaustion it (apparently) 
gives, when laboring under these affections.” 

In 1864 he published also a resume of his 
experience, from which we make the following 
selections :— 

“ The subject of alcohol as a medicine has 
occupied my attention ever since the year 1810. 
At that time I was of opinion that alcohol in 
various forms could not possibly be dispensed 
with in medical practice, but was absolutely 
necessary, and that nothing could be substi¬ 
tuted for it in the treatment of some disorders. 

“For the first twenty years I ignorantly 
gave alcohol in some diseases, as was cus¬ 
tomary with the profession. Yet at so early a 
period as 1813, I discontinued it in typhus 
and typhoid and other fevers, with the most 
marked beneficial results ; in 1818 in all cases 
of midwifery, and at a later period in delirium 
tremens, and in all other disorders and dis¬ 
eases, from a full conviction of its injurious 
properties; so that I had lost all faith in 
alcoholic stimulants, and discontinued their 


THE FOUE PILLAKS OF TEMPEKANCE. 113 

use several years before the formation of a 
Temperance Society. 

“For about thirty years I have not once 
prescribed alcohol as a medicine ; so that I 
have now fulty tried both ways, with and with¬ 
out alcohol. I am now fully of opinion that a 
more dishonest or cruel act, cannot be in¬ 
flicted on a patient, than to prescribe or order 
alcohol as a medicine. Why is alcohol pre¬ 
scribed at all as a medicine, being such a 
fertile producer of disease ? Dr. Trotter 
enumerates twenty-eight diseases arising from 
intoxicating drinks :—viz., apoplexy, epilepsy, 
hysterics, convulsions, fearful dreams, gastritis, 
enteritis, ophthalmia, carbuncles, hepatitis, 
gout, schiiTUS of the bowels, fatal obstructions 
of the lacteals, jaundice, indigestion, dropsy, 
tabes, syncope, diabetes, locked jaw, palsy, 
ulcers, madness, idiotcy, melancholy, impo- 
tency, premature old age, diseases of infants 
during suckhng. 

“ My non-alcoholic treatment of disease has 
been so satisfactory that I have not once, dtu*- 
ing the thirty years’ experience, been desirous 
of deviating from it: so strongly am I con¬ 
vinced of the truth and superiority, that I 
should consider myself criminal if T again re¬ 
commended alcohol, either as food or medicine. 


114 


THE PILLAE OF SCIENCE. 


“ I have discovered a great truth, and have 
made a great discovery :—that alcohol in every 
form may be dispensed with in medical and 
surgical practice, and is not required in a 
single disorder or disease. What evidence 
can be clearer or more satisfactory ? My prac¬ 
tice has been open to hourly inspection and 
observation for thii’ty years or more, in the 
centre of a large populous town, surrounded 
by more than forty surgeons and physicians ; 
most of them intelligent and discerning men, 

'—surely some one of them would have in¬ 
formed me of my insufficiency or mal-practice, 
had I been in error, but I have heard of no 
such remark from a single individual, although 
in daily communication with them. 

“During my long practice, I have not 
known or seen a single disease cured by al¬ 
cohol ; on the contrary, it is the most fertile 
producer of disease, and may be considered 
the bane of medicine and the seed of disease. 
It is destitute of any medicinal principle im¬ 
planted by the Creator in genuine medicines— 
such as emetina in ipecacuanha, rhein, in rhu¬ 
barb, jalapin in jalap, quinine in Peruvian 
bark, &c. 

“ One of our medical writers says. The dis¬ 
eases occasioned hj alcohol have been by far 


THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 116 

more destructive than any plague that ever 
raged in Christendom ; more malignant than 
any other epidemic pestilence that ever deso¬ 
lated our suffering race ; whether in the shape 
of the burning and contagious typhus ; the 
loathsome and mortal small pox ; the cholera 
of the East, or the yellow fever of the West; 
diseases by far more loathsome, infectious, and 
destnictive than all of them put together, with 
all their dreadful array of suffering and death, 
united in one ghastly assemblage of horrific 
and appalling misery. 

“ I have found acute diseases sooner cured 
without alcohol, and chronic disease much 
more manageable. 

“ I have never seen a patient or any person 
injured by leaving off alcohohc ^fluids at once, 
I should as soon expect, as a Dr. Scott has 
said, ‘killing a horse by leaifing off the whip 
and spur. I have not heard from my profes¬ 
sional brethren, or from any of my patients, 
that my non-alcoholic treatment of disease has 
occasion ed a single death. My greatest trouble 
has been, for many years, in preventing patients 
from being destroyed by the use of it. I do 
not say the dbuHey for I consider the use the 
abuse. 

“ No person can form any idea, except from 


116 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


experience, of the superiority of the practice 
of medicine and surgery, when alcohol is ban¬ 
ished from it. It is the complete emancipation 
from the slavery of alcohol; and the prac¬ 
titioner has a freedom in practice which he 
never before experienced. He will find an 
improved method of treating disease, by the 
exchange of alcohol for natural stimulants ; a 
proper use of water, pure air, exercise, and 
nutritious food ; the employment of genuine 
medicines ; and a variety of stimulants will 
occur to him in practice, of a non-intoxicating 
quality, adapted to various cases he may have 
to attend.” 

Quite in harmony with these sentiments are 
the following remarks made by Dr. Orpen, a 
distinguished physician, in 1837, in the Ko- 
tunda, Dublin, before 1200 persons. “It is 
my conviction that those who belong to this 
temperance society will seldom ham occasion for 
medical men. The diseases of your children 
will be diminished, and the public health 
immeasurably improved. In fact, emry year 
adds to my conviction that if the public woidd 
act loith common sense, and relinquish those 
drinking habits which have long domineered 
over society, they would enjoy such a portion of 
health as would starve almost all the physicians. 


THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 117 

This is my simple statement, contrary to my 
own personal interest and advantage. It costs 
you nothing—receive it, and you shall find 
yourselves both healthier and richer than you 
have hitherto been.” 

Meantime, one, and then another have 
started out in the same path, and now, after 
years of practice side by side with the old 
theoiy, they publish the results of their exper¬ 
ience. In each case we have the same testi¬ 
mony, viz., that disease is cured better and far 
more speedily without alcohol than with itj in¬ 
dependent of the greater moral safety. 

Take for instance the following :— 

L. M. Bennett, M.K.C.S., in a paper at the 
Temperance and Prohibition Convention, p. 
240, said—“I for one believe that there is no 
curable disease (chronic or acute) but what 
may be treated, and cured, better without 
alcohol than with it. I have found a great 
number of complaints easily yield to treatment 
when this drug has been discontinued, and 
record the following facts, the result of thirty 
years’ practice, in the hope that they may help 
to remove one of the most numerous of the 
causes of the intemperance of the present day 
■—the injudicious and indiscriminate recom- 


118 


THE PILLAIl OF SCIENCE. 


mendation of alcohol as a mediciue and a 
beverage. 

^"During the last twenty-fim years I have not 
once used it as a medicine, or recommended it as 
a beverage; and although I have had great 
experience in the treatment of dyspejDsia, 
fever, exhaustion from the loss of blood, and 
profuseness of purulent discharge, I have found 
all those complaints and conditions much more 
easily removed without alcohol. ... In treating 
patients for loss of blood, I can speak most 
confidently of the non-necessity of alcohol. I 
have during my practice attended upwards of 
2000 cases of child-birth, and have not lost a 

single case from hemorrhage.From all 

the observation and experience I have had for 
a period of thirty years, I have come to this 
conclusion—that intoxicating drinks in any 
quantity, however small, are unnecessary to 
maintain health ; that they are neither neces¬ 
sary nor desirable to support the frame under 
excitement, nor to recruit it when exliausted ; 
that when a necessity exists for the use of a 
stimulant in the treatment of disease, a safer, 
more certain, and effeetaal substitute can be found; 
that the mortality in disease will always be in 
proportion to the amount of alcohol used in 
the treatment, and that the entire disuse of it 



THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. Il9 

as a medicine would prove highly beneficial to 
mankind.” 

Mr. R. L. Bayley, M.R.C.S., of Stourbridge, 
has also favored us with some valuable facta 
relating to typhus fever, in which he conclu¬ 
sively proves that as a rule every patient re¬ 
covers where alcohol is not given. This is also 
the case in other diseases which have been 
under his treatment upon the same plan. 

“ I not only personally abstain from all intox¬ 
icants, but have entirely banished them from 
my practice, conscientiously and continuously, 
since August, 1841, and have never once had 
reason to regret it. During these twenty-one 
years I have not made fewer than 180,000 med¬ 
ical visits, and I hesitate not to say that the 
recoveries have been more numerous and more 
rapid, than they were during the five years I 
followed the usual practice^ •and administered 
brandy, wine, and beer. Of these numerous 
patients many were laboring under the most 
aggravated forms of tophus and other malig¬ 
nant fevers, small pox, cholera, delirium tre¬ 
mens, large exhausting abscesses, and many 
other forms of disease in which alcoholic stim¬ 
ulants are usually administered and thought 

to be essential.I have attended likewise 

the patients of two large hospitals for many 



120 


THE PILLAE OF SCIENCE. 


years—one in town, the other in the country ; 
the paupers of a populous parish for sixteen 
years ; the members of nine benefit clubs for 
many years, some of these numbering near 300 
members, and in all these different cases, and 
under all these different circumstances, I have 
not found it once necessary to prescribe either 
spirituous, vinous, or malt beverages. I am 
more than ever convinced that the banishment 
of these from my practice is right, and more 
firmly resolved than ever to continue in the 
course I have followed for so many years.”(l) 

“Having published short notices,” says 
Henry Mudge, M.E.C.S., Bodmin, “of over 
forty forms of disease, including accouche- 
ments by the hundred, hemorrhage, shock, ty¬ 
phus fever, consumption, purulent discharges, 
large burns, and indigestion, cured loithout 
alcoholics, I have'some right to claim equal 
explicitness from the prescribers of alcohol.” 

Mr Mudge has also placed the Temperance 
public and the world at large under a debt of 
gratitude by the publication of his ‘ Guide to 
the treatment of Disease unthout Intoxicating 
Liquors.’(2) 

Facts like these, with the revelations of Sci- 

(1) Dr. Colenette, Guernsey. 

(2) Post free from the Author, for 2s. 6d. 



THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 121 

ence, have at length entered the ‘ sacred circle/ 
if we may judge from the remarks made by 
Dr. Murchison in an address to the medical 
students at the Middlesex Hospital ; he said : 
—“ Nothing yet was definitely settled as to 
the mode of administration, and the mode of 
action of alcohol in disease. Kecent researches 
discredited the hypothesis that alcohol was to 
be regarded in the light of food in disease, 
and showed, that in the inordinate quantities 
in which it had been the custom to adminis¬ 
ter it, its tendency was to disturb all the vital 
functions, and to counteract the vis medicatrix 
naturce (healing power of nature). A fun¬ 
damental blow had thus been struck at the 
fashionable revival of Brunonism, which was 
believed to be responsible for the origin of intern- 
perance amongst the patients who survived, and 
dismissing not a few drunken and unconscious to 
another world'' 

Can anything be plainer? Here is one of 
our leading medical men actually saying that 
after all their experiments, extending over such 
a number of years, “ they don't know how much 
alcohol to give, nor what it is to do when they 
have given it." Surely we may hope that if 
such fearful results follow its administration 
as those named, we may be excused if we say, 
11 


122 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


Gentlemen, we decline being experimented 
upon, until you have settled very definitely 
how much drink we are to take, and what it is 
to do when we have taken it,” and should they 
try to frighten us with declaring that we “ must 
take it or die”—our reply shall be, “ If we must 
die, then we will die sober V 

As a striking proof of the change in public 
opinion, we may notice that during the “ Tem¬ 
perance and Prohibition Convention ” held at 
London in Sept. 1862, the following resolu¬ 
tions were unanimously passed in the scientific 
and medical department, J. M. M’Culloch, 
M.D., President. 

Dr. Pigg moved, and Mr. Bennett, surgeon, 
seconded, the first of the following resolutions ; 
Dr. Norman Kerr moved, and Mr. Moses 
Pranks, surgeon, of Heckington, seconded the 
last. 

“ 1. That the recent experiments and dis¬ 
coveries of iihysiological science, confirming 
observation and experience in all climates, have 
clearly demonstrated that alcohol has no diet¬ 
etic value, but that its use as a beverage, in any 
form or to any extent, is injurious both to the 
body and the mind of man. 

“ 2. That the progress of medical science and 
experiment has exploded many theories on 


THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 123 

which the prescription of alcohol has been 
heretofore based ; and has demonstrated, not 
only its non-dietetic character, but also its 
non-medical virtue, in a large range of disease ; 
that the scientific, as distinguished from the 
empirical application of remedies requires that 
their specific properties and reaction should 
be understood—conditions never yet fulfilled 
in regard to alcohol. This Convention, there¬ 
fore, earnestly call upon the members of the 
honorable profession of medicine, not only to 
respect theii- own reputation as a body, but to 
bear in mind their grave moral and social re¬ 
sponsibilities, in prescribing so questionable, 
so dangerous, and so abused an article. The 
Convention would also press u]Don the friends 
of temperance the duty of insisting that alcohol, 
whenever prescribed under the plea of a sup¬ 
posed, or the justification of a real, necessity, 
should be dispensed, like other drugs, not by 
the publican, but by the apothecary.’" 

In 1853 Dr. Bushnan, ex-editor of the “ Me¬ 
dical Times,” said, “We are far from denying 
that teetotalism has wrought no small im¬ 
provement on the laboring class. But, as it 
rests on a false principle, we doubt its per¬ 
formance. (?) And, on the same ground, we 
dissuade the well-meaning from pressing this 


124 


THE PILLAR OF SCIENCE. 


false principle on the middle ranks of society. 
All i)ast experience shows that whenever a 
false principle has gained ground among men, 
the final effects of reaction are of the most 
mischievous character. On the maturest re¬ 
flection we feel compelled to pronounce the 
total temperance movement the creature of a 
day—a short-lived enthusiasm—a bubble that 
will float awhile on the stream of time, but 
which must of necessity burst ere many years 
have elapsed, probably long before the living 
generation has passed wholly away.” (!!) 

How far his prophecies have been fulfilled 
may be gathered from the ‘British Medical 
Journal,’ which sums up the discussion in 
1863, by saying :— 

“ "We have no wish hastily to speak on this 
important matter, but we are in conscience 
bound boldly to declare the logical and inev¬ 
itable conclusions, as they seem to us, to which 
a scientific view of-the subject forces us. 

“ The grand practical conclusions are these : 

1. That alcohol is not food ; and that, beinsr 
simply a stimulus of the nervous system, its 
use is hurtful to the body of a healthy man. 

2. That if its imbibition be of service, it is so 
only to man in an abnormal condition ; and 


THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 125 . 

that our duty, as men of medicine, is to en¬ 
deavor to define what those particular abnor¬ 
mal states are in which alcohol is serviceable. 

3. That ordinary social indulgence in alcoholic 
drinks, for society’s sake, is, medically speak¬ 
ing, a very unphysiological and prejudicial pro¬ 
ceeding. 

We will only add, that if we wanted any 
stronger proof of the necessity for the in¬ 
quiry we now ask for, we should find it in the 
arguments—if they may be termed such—of 
those who have taken up the defence of the 
bottle.” 

It appears, therefore, that if “ coming events 
cast theii’ shadows before,” we may hope to 
see ere long this delusion swept away, and 
that even medical men will be found candid 
enough to admit the truth into their own 
minds, and recognize its importance among 
the people. We are quite aware, to use the 
I words of Sir James Eyre, that “ Medical men, 
those of England even, are a class of persons, 
among the slow^est to take advice from any 
but tlieir paid and privileged teachers, during 
and after their state of pupilage. Tliis may, 
with most, be owing to their timidity and 
conscientious carefulness; but with some it 


126 


THE PILLAB OF SCIENCE. 


may be imputed to conceit and jealousy, and 
from a repugnance to be taught, even when 
taking the dose from mature age, and from 
the hands of undoubted experience.” 

History furnishes examples in abundance, 
that they are not by any means the first to 
know and do the truth. In many cases quite 
the contrai’y. Temperance men, ’tis true, 
have gone into their sacred enclosures, and 
have felt keenly the force of Liebig’s words, 
where speaking of the profession, he says that 
“rejecting altogether an exact acquaintance 
with nature, the source of all knowledge, they 
look upon them-selves as the true dispensers of 
light and information; and the mo:.t modest 
opposition to the views of such infallible{Vj 
guides, is regarded by them as downright 
heresy.” 

Still, -whether they endorse the truth or not, 
iTremains the same, and will ultimately assert 
its supremacy, for “ the diversified proofs 
gathered fi'om every quarter, and with a ful¬ 
ness and precision of evidence which has 
Bcarcel}'- a paralled eleswhere—all have point¬ 
ed unckcdlengeahly to the conclusion, that 
alcohol is the most widely and intensely de- 
structive of poisons .That a being pos¬ 

sessed of reason sliould by such means destroy 


THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 127 


reason, and a being doting on life should thus be 
prodigal of life, is one of those weaknesses in 
man which may excite the sympathies of the 
coldest, while it is a dishonor which may 
humble the spirit of the proudest” 



THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 


“We find, in almost every branch of science, that 
truth can be discovered only by deep and serious in¬ 
vestigation. If we rest in superficial inquiries, we shall 
be led into numberless and fatal mistakes. In what 
relates to religion, more especially, an impartial exam¬ 
ination is necessary, because the doctrines of revelation 
are confessedly repugnant both to the prejudices and 
passions of mankind. Yet, strange as it may appear, 
there is no other science wherein men form their opin¬ 
ions on such slender information as in that. The 
generality adopt the notions that are current in their 
day, without even considering whether they be right 
or wrong, the natural consequence of which is, that in 
many instances they embrace error in preference to 
truth. ”(1) 

f ^F our conclusions thus far have been 
^ correct, then we are sure to find that the 
J teachings of the Bible are in harmony 
therewith ; for the word of God and the 
^ WORKS OF God must agree. Startle not, 
^ then, when we say that the Bible, pro- 


(1) Eev. C. Simeon. 





THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 129 

perly interpreted, is the best temperance book 
in tlie world, and therefore we claim it as one 
of the pillars upon which temperance rests. 
Before however adducing the needful proof, it 
is important that we should know what the 
book was sent for. Dr. Gumming shall an¬ 
swer— 

“The Bible was not designed to teach 
science, but wherever it touches the province 
of science, it touches so delicately that we can 
see the main object is to teach men how to he 
saved —it was not written to teach geology, for 
we can discover its phenomena by science 
and may we not also add, that it was not sent 
to teach men “ what to eat, drink, or avoid,” 
inasmuch as by the exercise of our reason, and 
the aid of science, we can discover what is 
good and what is bad. Whoever thinks of 
looking for a text to teU us whether arsenic or 
strychnine is good or bad, or what we ought 
to do with a bad drain? Indeed, we go fur¬ 
ther, and say, that it is not right to lower the 
character of the Bible and make it into a 
‘Cookery book,’ inasmuch as its province is of 
a far higher and nobler character. But no 
sooner is the subject of temperance mentioned 
than we hear from a host of professors of re¬ 
ligion, “ Where do you find it in the Bible ?” 


130 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

“Didn’t our Lord make wine at Cana?” 
“Didn’t Paul tell Timothy to take a little 
wine for his stomach’s sake?” &c. Now we 
should be quite prepared to enter into the 
critical merits of these particular cases if it 
were really required, but inasmuch as they 
have already been so thoroughly handled by 
Dr. Lees (see his Works, Vol. 2), and by Dr. 
Nott (in his “Lectures on Biblical Temper¬ 
ance”), we do not think it necessary. We are 
rather inclined to illustrate the subject by a 
few references to some general principles, 
which have long been recognjzed as sound by 
the Christian community. For instance, take 
the following as a case in point. “ When the 
parliament of Tahiti consulted the Queen 
respecting the admission of intoxicating chinks, 
she said, ‘ Let the principles contained in the 
New Testament be the foundation of all your 
proceedings,’ and immediately they enacted 
a law against trading with any vessel that 
brought ardent spirits. It was not so much 
any isolated text, as ‘ the principles'' of the book 
generally that guided their determination. 
They saw that love to God and man is the 
grand principle of the Book, and that this love 
enjoins us to do nothing which would prove 
the means, directly or indirectly, of making a 


THE PILLAE OE SCEIPTTJEE. 131 

brother ‘ stumble, offend, or become wealr,’ or 
fall into sin.” We are aware that in doing so 
we shall come in collision wuth some old 
notions, and have to upset some false inter¬ 
pretations, but this will be nothing new in the 
history of the world, and “It is unmanly to 
blink the approval of light, from whatever 
quarter of observation it may fall upon us; 
and those are not the best friends of Chris¬ 
tianity, who feel either dislike or alarm when 
the torch of science, or the torch of history, is 
held up to the Bible. . . . They who would 
divorce theology from science, or science from 
theology, are in effect, if not in intention, the 
enemy of both.”(l) 

Depend upon it, there never has been nor 
can be opposition between nature and revela¬ 
tion : there cannot be any contradiction in 
truth. That which is scientifically true, will be 
found ere long to be morally right, as well as 
in harmony with every word of God. As Sir 
David Brew^ster says :—“ Truths physical have 
an origin as divine as truths religious. In the 
time of Galileo they triumphed over the casu¬ 
istry and secular power of the church ; and in 
our own day the incontrovertible truths of 
primeval life have won as noble a victory over 


(1) Dr. Chalmers. 



132 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

the errors of a speculative theology, and 2i fahe 
interpretation of the Word of God. Science 
ever has been and ever must he, the handmaid of 
religion. The grandeur of her truths may 
transcend our failing reason, but those who 
cherish them upon truths equally gnand, but 
certainly more incomprehensible, ought to see 
in the marvels of the material world the best 
defence and illustration of the mysteries of 
their faith.” 

“It follows then,” says Dr. Pye Smith, “as 
a universal truth, that the Bible, faithfully 
interpreted, erects no barrier against the most 
free and extensive investigation, the most 
comprehensive and searching induction. Let 
but the investigation be sufficient and the in¬ 
duction honest; let observation take its farthest 
flight: let experiment penetrate into aU the 
recesses of nature ; let the veil of ages be lifted 
up from all that has hitherto been unknown,—• 
if such a course were possible, religion need 
not fear ; Christianity is secure, and true 
science will always pay homage to the Divine 
Creator and Sovereign, of whom, and through 
ivhom, and to ivhom are all things; and unto 
whom he glory for ever.’’ (1) 

“ We love to go into the open field of nature. 


(1) “Lectures on Geology.” 



THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 


133 


and expatiate amid the wonders and Ihe glories 
of this earthly creation. The Bible has not 
divorced nature. They are wedded in everlast¬ 
ing union. The principles and the truths 
involved in the physical universe are insepar¬ 
able from the moral phenomena of the spiritual 
world. These principles and truths are being 
more and more evolved in the progress and 
the discoveries of science, and are destined 
for an immortality of being. If we fail to 
discover the connection between creation and re- 
velation, it does not follow that the harmony does 
not exist. Nature is ever reaching forward 
towards the Bible, and the Bible embracing 
nature with a true love ; both are pressing 
upward and onward to that higher sphere of 
light, in which their harmony will be for ever 
revealed, and the revelation of which will 
awaken the raptures of immortality.”(l) 

Rev. W. Arnot remarks:—“Hitherto the 
researches of science, as far as they go, coincide 
with the intimations of Scripture. The works 
of God and the Word of God agree. Our busi¬ 
ness is to read them both aright.” And yet, 
strange as it may appear, this has been the 
battle which has had to be fought in all ages ; 
and we are yet far from realizing the time of 

(1) Rev. Dr. Ferguson, ‘Consecrated Heights.’ 

12 



134 THE FOUR PILLARS OP TEMPERANCE. 

wliich Kepler, the astronomer, speaks when 
he says, “ the day will soon break, when pious 
simplicity will be ashamed of its blind super¬ 
stition—when men will recognize truth in the 
Book of Nature, as well as in the Holy Scrip¬ 
ture, and rejoice in the two revelations.” 

But, alas! as John Foster observes—“ There 
is among serious persons a quite irreligious 
neglect of one of the two forms of divine 
revelation, the Word and the ivories of the 
Almighty, and that even among Christian 
teachers, there is often a very unthinking and 
ill discriminating mode of depreciating the 
latter in comparison ; a practice against which 
they might have been warned by observing 
the almost endless references in the Word of 
that Being to his works, and by observing how 
very often the Word rests the fulness of the 
meaning of its dictates and illustrations upon 
an adequate view of the works. ”(1) 

“ The love of nature is inseparable from all 
the higher forms of Christian life and con¬ 
sciousness. There is neither discrepancy nor 
contradiction between nature and revelation. 
The Bible does profound homage to nature, 
by taking for granted all those facts and truths 
which could be learned from the deeper study 


(1) “ Essays. 



THE PILLAE OF SCKIPTURE. 135 

of the external creation. The written Word 
sets out in its subiimer teachings from the 
point at which creation is inarticulate and 
silent. It speaks where no other voice can be 
heard, and where its utterances are of the 
highest moment. It has come not only to 
su 2 )plement, but to com^dete the revelation of 

God to man.It follows that the more 

largely any man drinks into the spirit of 
Chi’istianity, the better qualified he is to hold 
communion with the soul and the secrets of 
nature.—There is no j)iety in depreciating the 
works of God. 

“ Nature lies before us as an open volume, 
and if we will not receive its intimatioiis and 
disclosures, it but too clearly proves that we 
are seriously wanting in those dispositions and 
states of heart which are esseutial to all wider 
knowledge and all higher attainment. Nature 
nowhere assumes to take the place of the Bible, 
and the Bible has been given us to teach us 
that which nature never professes to reveal.”(lj 
“ Of all the deadly legacies which theologi¬ 
cal strife has handed down to us, there is none 
deadlier than that dread of the study of reve¬ 
lation of the mind of God, in creation, wBich 
infects so strangely a large section of the 

(1) Kev. Dr. Ferguson’s “Consecrated Heights.” 





136 THE FOUE PILLAES OF TEMPEEANCE. 

church. There is an infidel dread of inquiry 
into visible things which has tended largely 
to create a miserable, mutually detrimental 
schism, between the Christian belief and activ¬ 
ity, and the intellectual life of our time. This 
fear of the study of nature, and the observa¬ 
tion of all that she can reveal to us about God, 
palsies the manhood of the godly in the church, 
and widens continually the breach between it 
and the world it was set to enlighten and to 
guide to salvation.”(l) 

The great secret of this opposition, however, 
lies deeper than men generally admit. We 
fear “ the reason why men find new and 
strange interpretations is, because they have a 
stronger desire to find countenance for their 
sinSy than honestly to ascertain the mind and 
will of God ; and the fault is not in the Bible, 
but in the diseased and jaundiced heart that 
reads it ; and the cure for it is not a new Bi¬ 
ble, but a new heart.”(2) 

A desire to have the Bible on our side 
is one thing, a desire to be on the side of the 
Bible is another. But how many there are 
who take their opinions to the Bible, instead 
of going to the Bible to get them. The Bible 
is not asked to instruct, it is pressed into ser- 


(1) Kev. Baldwin Brown. (2) Dr. Gumming. 



THE PILLAB OF SCRIPTURE. 137 

vice as a witness. This is nothing new, for, 
as Dr. Grindrod justly observes : “It has been 
generally customary for those who possess the 
Scriptures, but who do not understand their 
contents or design, to array the sacred volume 
against whatever may oppose their prejudices. 
The authority of the law was marshalled by the 
Jews against the Gospel of the Son of God.” 

“ Nature and revelation are as httle at vari¬ 
ance on the wine question as on other ques¬ 
tions, and when rightly consulted, this wiD be 
found to be so. It is not in the text, but in 
the interpretation, that men have felt straight¬ 
ened in their consciences, and though this 
feeling should continue, unless the providence 
of God changes, it will not alter the facts of the 
case.”(l) 

“ If we take to the Bible a spirit which it 
dues not approve, we are likely to bring from 
it a spirit which it has not imparted.”(2) In 
going there, “ Let us make sure that we have 
the Bible truth and not merely Bible ivords. 
It is a favorite and frequent thing with the 
Arch-deceiver to couch his own lies in the 
words of Scripture. He takes out and leaves 
behind the kernels of truth, and catches the 


(1) Dr. Nott. (2) Dr. Harris, “Great Teacher.” 



138 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

unwary with the empty chaff of mere Scrip¬ 
ture phraseology.” (1) 

It should be borne in mind that there is an 
infidelity which is the result of the repudiation 
of darkness, and there is an infidelity which 
is the result of the repudiation of light. The 
former is guiltless in comparison with the lat¬ 
ter. 

“We may err in our interpretations of the 
language of the Bible, but the Bible itself 
never errs ; and in nothing has its import been 
more misapprehended than in the countenance 
it has sometimes been supposed to give to the 
use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage.”(2) 

“The books of nature and revelation were 
both written by the same unerring wisdom,— 
the moral laws of God’s kingdom are embod¬ 
ied in the former, the physical in the latter. 
The laws of God^ physical or moral, tend to pro¬ 
mote the virtue and secure the happiness of man 
'—misery never results from obeying, hut disobe¬ 
dience.” 

“ The voice of God is uttered as articulately 
in his works as in his word, and he is the 
greatest enemy of religion who would throw a 


(1) Boardman. (2) Nott. (3) Nott. 



THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 


139 


rein over genius, or limit science in the free¬ 
dom of her range.”(l) 

Mankind blame the contemporaries of Ga¬ 
lileo, not so much because they did not give 
behef to his views, but because, when, with 
the view of converting them, i. c., of establish¬ 
ing a belief in his statements, he invited them 
to look through his telescope, they refused to look. 

“ We know that the book of nature, and the 
book of grace own the same authorship and 
manifest the same autograph ; ana it only 
needs that the characters in both be made 
clearly out, in order to demonstrate how per¬ 
fect the harmony is between them. They are 
never out of unison with each other; super- 
Jicial men create a seeming discord, and then find 
fault with God’s work instead of their own.”(2) 

“Be not deceived by names. When you 
hear men quote the Bible in favor of a bever¬ 
age that is filling the world with crime, disease 
and death, be assured the quotation is made in 
error; either the article, here so fatal, is not 
the article which the Bible recommends, or 
our manner of using it is not the manner it 
sanctions. God wills the virtue and happiness 
of his creatures, and cannot therefore will the 

(1) Sir David Brewster. 

(2) liev. Hugh Stowell, “Lecture to Young Men.” 



140 THE F’OUR pillars OF TEMPERANCE. 

use of anything that tends to the subversion 
of both.”(l) 

But how is it then that ministers are so opposed 
to the movement ? Time was when this question 
could be asked with greater propriety than at 
present, but if “ coming events cast their 
shadow before,” then there is every indication 
of a change for the better, inasmuch as during 
the past few years, hundreds of ministers of 
all denominations have joined the movement. 
It should, however, be borne in mind, that 
History reveals the fact that ministers, as a 
body, rarely lead the way at first in great 
changes affecting the welfare of society. Were 
it not for this, indeed, the characters of Luther, 
Wesley, and others, would not stand out so 
conspicuous. Nor is it to be wondered at 
when we reflect that “as the studies of the 
clergy be in the past, as the days of their 
strongest influence are behind, and as the 
religious feelings of men have hitherto reposed 
on the antique, and are but just beginning to 
point towards the future, it is natural, it is 
inevitable that the clergy should retard rather 
than aid the progress of society.” Such being 
the case then, w^e should, like the Bereans of 
old, search and see for ourselves whether the 


(1) Nott’s “Lectures.' 



THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 


141 


thing be true or no. The importance of doing 
this may be gathered from a few illustrations, 
illustrative of the fact that great and good 
men are not always wise. 

In 1671, thirty years after the death of Ga¬ 
lileo, and two years after Newton commenced 
lecturing in Cambridge, Dr. John Owen, the 
most eminent divine among the Independents, 
described the Copernican system as “the late 
hypothesis fixing the sun in the centre of the 
world—built by fallible phenomena and ad¬ 
vanced by many arbitrary presumptions 
against evident testimonies of Scripture, and 
reasons as probable as any which are produced 
in its confirmation.”(l) 

“ Heresy, error, apostasy, generally begin 
with the clergy, not with the laity ; the fir^t 
to teach the wrong, are they who ought always 
to teach the right.”(2) 

Have you forgotten that the Holy One was 
crucified by the strict religious professors of 
his time, and that the deed was owing more 
to the leaders of the church, than to the Avorld. 
“Saul of Tarsus was not the only individual 
who, when erring grievously, has thought he 
was doing God service.”(3) These are gene- 

(1) “Preliminary Exercises to Hebrews,” p. 636, 
Ed. 1840. (2) Dr. Gumming. (3) Nott. 



142 THE FLUE PILLAKS OF TEMPERANCE. 

rally the very class of men who in all ages have 
boasted of their superior knowledge of the 
truth ; this is owing to the idea “ that while 
they imagine they are contending for revelation, 
they are, in fact, contending for their own in¬ 
terpretation of revelation, unconsciously adapted 
to what they believe to be rationally pro- 
bable.’\l) And such persons “ claim for their 
human interpretations of certain dubious pas¬ 
sages of Scripture, an authority equal to the 
inspired volume itself, and thence construe 
every doubt expressed against the interpretation 
into a doubt of the truth of the sacred Scrip¬ 
tures themselves. Every departure from their 
own parallel of opinion they denounce as the 
region of heretics, or the way of infidelity, and 
this, too, in spite of the fact that there are 
thousands of Christian men and ministers of 
all denominations who repudiate their human 
interpretations.” 

It is not many years since that Andrew 
Fuller was opposed in his efforts to form a 
missionary society, by the very men who held 
a commission to “go into all the world to 
preach the gospel to every creature,” and a 
little earlier in the history of England, when 
Bishop Latimer was advocating the importance 


(1) Whewell. 



THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 143 

of education, Rev. Dr. Buckingham opposed 
it by saying, “ If that heresy should prevail, 
we should soon see an end of everything use¬ 
ful among us. The ploughman reading that 
if ht put his hand to the plough, &c., would 
-soon lay aside his labor; the baker also, read¬ 
ing that a little leaven would corrupt his lump, 
would give us very insipid bread ; the simple 
man also, finding himself commanded to pluck 
out his eyes when they offended, would pave 
the way for a nation of blind beggars.” 

Notwithstanding these and similar opposi¬ 
tions, we have now both missionary societies 
and schools. To quote the words of Dr. Har¬ 
ris : “ It is a subject of congratulation, that as 
natural science advances, she is throwing a 
light on many of the dark things of Scripture, 
and at the same time multiplying her own 
incredibilia; so that wonder and scepticism 
will have to transport their throne from the 
region of religion into the province of science. 
And thus, much of the strength which w^ould 
once have been wasted in speculation and con¬ 
troversy, is now more usefully employed in 
Biblical criticism and the enforcement of piety, 
in acts of obedience to God, anid in deeds of 
benevolence to man.”(l) 


(1) “ Great Teacher. 



144 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

“ The Bible, though it does not explicitly 
teach the science of physiology, does, in its 
moral and spiritual precepts and requirements, 
implicitly demand that man should, to the full 
extent of his capabilities, and opportunities, 
and means, acquire that knowledge of the 
nature and properties of things, which will 
enable him in the gTeatest degree to maintain 
the highest well-being of his whole nature, by 
the most perfect obedience to the laws of God 
in his nature and relations.”(1) 

We admit that jhe word wine occurs many 
times in the sacred volume, but any one read¬ 
ing the various texts with an unbiassed mind, 
must feel that the article upon which a bless¬ 
ing is pronounced, and the one upon which 
we are commanded not even to look, cannot 
be the same in quality. 

This is just the point. Wine is a generic 
term, like man. The word itself does not 
necessarily mean either intoxicating or non-in¬ 
toxicating—^just as the word man, neither 
means a w’hite man or a black one, or that he 
is tall, short, fat or thin —that is governed by 
other considerations, such as the context, the 
circumstances, &c. Scripture thus properly 
interpreted will be found to give no sanction 


(1) Graham. 



THE PILLAR OF SCRIl PURE. 145 

whateyer to the common notion of drinkers. 
It will be difficult, if not impossible, to find a 
single passage in wmich moderate drinking of 
intoxicating drinks is spoken of as adding, in 
any w^ay, to the excellence of moral character, 
\yhile total abstinence from such drinks has 
received the broadest marks of the Divine 
approval. The true method to determine the 
meaning of a word is to examine the gram¬ 
matical structure of the text ; the use of lan¬ 
guage in the same book and in the same age, 
the circumstances of the case, and by the na¬ 
ture of things. Just in the same manner as 
‘ theologians’ settled the meaning of the word 
‘day’ in Genesis, and the ‘ whole earth’ being 
covered with water at the time of the deluge. 

“ I do not quote isolated texts. In nothing 
have theologians more mangled the word of 
the Bible, than by quoting its words. The 
word must explain the words.”(1) 

From the abstract word, you can never in¬ 
fer the nature of the thing in all its forms and 
use ; we are therefore driven to the general 
principles of interpretation, which are con¬ 
stantly applied to other subjects in the Sacred 
Word, and “ such modifications of the current 
interpretations of the words of Scripture ap- 


13 


(1) Lynch. 



146 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

pear to be an inevitable consequence of the pro¬ 
gressive character of natiu’al science. Science 
is constantly teaching us to describe known 
facts in new language, but the language of 
Scripture is always the same. And not only 
so, but the language of Scripture is neces¬ 
sarily adapted to the common state of man’s 
intellectual development, in which he is sup¬ 
posed not to be possessed of science. Hence 
the phrases used by Scripture are precisely 
those which science soon teaches man to 
consider inaccui’ate. Yet they are not on 
that account the less fitted for their proper 
purpose ; for if any terms had been used 
adapted to a more advanced state of know¬ 
ledge, they must have been unintelligible 
among those to whom the Scripture was first 
addressed. If the Jews had been told that 
water existed in the clouds in small drops, 
they would have marvelled that it did not 
constantly descend ; and to have explained 
the reason of this would have been to teach 
atmology in the sacred writings. If they had 
read in their Scripture that the earth was a 
sphere, when it appeared to be a plain, they 
would only have been disturbed in their 
thoughts, or driven to some wild and baseless 
imaginations by a declaration to them so 


THE PILLAE OF BCBIPTTJRE. 147 

strange. If the Divine Speaker, instead of 
saying that he would set his how in the clouds, 
had been made to declare that he would give 
to w^ater the property of refracting diiierent 
colors at different angles, how utterly un¬ 
meaning to his hearers w^ould the 'words have 
been! And, in these cases, the expressions 
being unintelligible, startling, and bewilder¬ 
ing, ’v\^ould have been such as tended to unfit 
the sacred narrative for its place in the provi¬ 
dential dispensation of the world. 

“Accordingly, in the great controversy 
which took place in Galileo’s time between 
the defenders of the then customary interpreta¬ 
tions of Scripture, and the assertors of the 
Copernican system of the universe, when the 
innovators were upbraided with maintaining 
opinions contrary to Scripture, they rephed 
that Scripture was not intended to tearh men as¬ 
tronomy, and that it expressed the acts of 
divine power in images which were suited to 
the ideas of unscientific men. To speak of 
the rising and setting and travelling of the 
sun, of the fixity and of the foundations of the 
earth, was to use the only language w^hich 
w^ould have made the sacred narrative intelli¬ 
gible. To extract from these and the like ex¬ 
pressions doctrines of science, was, they declared; 


148 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

in the highest degree unjustifiable; and such a 
course could lead, they held, to no result but 
a weakening of the authority of Scripture in pro- 
jiortion as its credit was identified with that 
of these modes of applying it. And this 
judgment has since been generally assented to 
by those who most reverence and value the 
study of the designs of Providence as well as 
that of the works of nature.”(1) 

Let us then examine the matter by the aid 
of a few generally admitted principles . which 
are to be gathered from the Word of God, and 
we learn from these:—fl) That God appoints 
nothing of which sin is to be the legitimate and 
proper result. We have already seen that we 
are coiirmanded to be sober. This of necessity 
involves the duty of using the best possible 
means. Now it is a remarkable fact that 
wdienever God is represented as interfering at 
all, it is always with a command not to drink, 
in fact, (1) Peculiar consecration to God was 
invariably accompanied with abstinence. 

(2) Abstinence therefore w^as regarded as con^ 
sistent with peculiar wisdom and piety. 

(3) There is no approved examjfie of drinking. 
(4j Not one command to drink, but (5) sev¬ 
eral to abstain, accompanied (G) with blessings 

(1) Whewelt’s “ Indications rf the Creator.” 



THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTCRE. 14-9 

in doing so. Quite in harmony with this is 
Dr. Clai'he’s exposition of 1 Peter v. 8. 

“ Satan tempts under three forms :—1. The 
subtle serpent to beguile our senses, pervert 
‘ our judgment, and enchant our imagination. 
•2. As an angel of light, to deceive us with false 
views of spiritual things, refinements (and 
additions) in religion, and presumption on the 
providence and grace of God. 3. As a roaring 
lion. . . . seeking whom he may gulp down. It 
is not every one he can swallow down ; those 
who are sober and vigilant are proof against 
him, these he may not swallow down. There 
is a beauty in this verse, and a striking appo¬ 
sition between the first and last words, which 

I think have not been noticed.Hear 

this, ye drunkards, topers, tipplers, or by what¬ 
soever name you are known in society. 

Strong drink is not only the way to the devil, 
but the devil’s way into you ; and ye are such 
as the devil paidicularly may swallovr down.” 

How do you know if you drink that you 
shall escape ? "VYhat has happened to your 
neighbor to day may happen to you to-morrow, 
and the very fact that so many wise men have 
been deluded should teach at least caution. 
Think of a slain Solomon, “ since fell Lucifer 
the son of the morning, what more impressive 




150 THE FOUB PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

proof of the jDOwer of evil ?”—“ Let him that 
thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.” 

Let us suppose that we are present at the 
marriage of Cana, at the very moment when 
the Saviour has issued his command to fill the 
water pots with water. As the guests look on 
with wonder, we behold “the water made 
wine.” We then hear the governor utter his 
praises of the miraculous supply. Suppose 
also the same power that raised Lazarus, or 
that caused Moses and Elias to appear, sum¬ 
moned the old prophet Habakkuk to their 
midst and with a voice of thunder he cried, 
“Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor 
drink,” and ere oui’ surprise ceased suppose 
Solomon’s voice mingled with his brother seer, 
saying, “ Look not thou upon the wine when 
it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, 
when it moveth itself aright. At the last it 
biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an 
adder.” May we not ask, “Are you sure that 
there is a real contradiction between the fact 
and the text of the Bible, or is it only a con¬ 
tradiction between the fact discovered by 
science and the interpretation that you put 
Ui^on the text of the Bible?”(1) 

But we come to the same conclusion fj'cm 


(1) Cumming’s “Genesis and Geology.” 




THE PILLAB qp SCKIPTUEE. 151 

(he moral necessity of the case. “ It is evident 
from tlie sacred record that the guests of the 
feast had been drinking freely of wine before 
the mother of Jesus desired him to furnish 
more, and they must have become so much 
stimulated before they were furnished with 
their new supply, that had the good wine 
which Jesus made been intoxicating, there 
would have been the utmost danger, nay, 
moral certainty, that they would have become 
intoxicated. Now one of these three proposi¬ 
tions is necessarily true ; either Jesus was 
ignorant of the real nature and condition of 
man, and of the effect which alcohol would 
have upon him,—or else he was not the phil¬ 
anthropic and holy being we believe him to 
have been,—or else it was morally impossible 
on such an occasion, in such circumstances, 
and for such a use, to make an intoxicating 
liquor by the special exercise of the divine 
power which the eternal Father had given 
him to be exerted to the glory of God and the 
good of man. But that Jesus did accurately 
and fully understand the whole nature of man, 
and all that relates to man, is clearly demon¬ 
strated in the perfect adaptation of his gospel 
to man in every point and in every respect, 
and that he w^as truly the philanthropic and 


152 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE 

holy being wliich vg believe him to have been, 
is fully demonstrated by the infinitely holy 
and philanthropic spirit and economy of the 
gospel. It was therefore morally impossible 
for Jesus, on the occasion we are considering, 
to make an intoxicating liquor for the guests 
of the feast to drink—it was not possible for 
him to choose to do it, without ceasing to be 
a holy and benevolent being. Hence it is 
certain that the wine which Jesus made at the 
marriage feast at Cana, was not in the least 
degree an intoxicating liquor.”(1) 

The various symbols employed with reference 
to Christ, also point in the direction of this 
teaching. Take for instance the following 
selection as a sample. The blood is spoken of 
as a gushing fountain ; like iliQ fresh expressed 
juice. 

This is immaculate.The other is corimption. 

This is true and faithful.The other is the mocker. 

This is the tread of life.The other is poison. 

This is a blessing to all men.. The other is a curse to all men. 

This is pure.The other is mpure & adulterated. 

This is a cleanser.The other is a contaminator. 

This we are to look unto.The other not to look upon. 

This saves.The other destroys. 


Unless these illustrations be correct, then 
there was, after all, some show of truth in 


(1) Graham, “ Philosophy of Sacred History.” 










THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 153 

Howell, an English author of the 16th century, 
who in sjoeaking of the introduction of Canary 
wine into general consumplion, was so enthu¬ 
siastic in his encomiums on the new beverage, 
that he urged its use by the following ingeni¬ 
ous train of reasoning :—‘‘ Good wine creates 
good blood, good blood causes good humor, 
good humor inspires men with good thoughts, 
good thoughts lead to good actions, and good 
actions lead to heaven. Therefore, good wine 
leads to heaven.” 

2. Christianity seeks to make every object and 
relation an instrument of righteousness. But is 
it possible to do this with an article whose 
e\dls are so notorious that they cannot be 
denied, and too mischievous not to be felt? 
How often has drink made good men into had 
men, while it has never aided to raise a man 
either in virtue or religion. It makes the good 
bad, and the bad worse. Nothing is more 
evident than that God wills our happiness. 
Satan, however, with fatal skill obstructs and 
opposes the divine intention, and his most 
efficient weapon is drink. In our efforts to 
get rid of this evil, we are seeking “ to give a 
new direction to the organ of combativeness, 
so that instead of pulling down good, it may 
pull down evil, which is virtually building up 


154 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEJ.IPERANCE.' 

good.” And none ought to be found more 
zealously engaged in this kind of service, than 
the Christian church, inasmuch as it should be 
the pattern or example of all. that tends to 
purify and elevate man (Phil. iv. 8j. “ Chris¬ 

tianity has too long and too exclusively been 
regarded as a scheme of redemption, and not 
enough as a scheme of regeneration ” by the 
larger portion of professing Christians, and if 
they are not in the front ranks of the efforts 
made to spread the kingdom of righteousness, 
it can hardly be expected that the intemperate 
themselves will originate measures for effecting 
their own deliverance from a vice to which they 
are willingly devoted, any more than we ex¬ 
pect the heathen to originate missionary so¬ 
cieties for preaching the Gospel, or ignorant 
people to open schools. 

It is by such devotedness to the welfare of 
others that we best illustrate the divine prin¬ 
ciples of the Gospel, as Rev. Sydney Smith 
observes : “An attempt is often made to 
distinguish between moral and Christian sub¬ 
jects of investigation, but no subject can be 
moral which is not Christian. Christianity 
guides us to another world, by showing us 
how to act in this : in precepts, more or less 
general, it enacts and limits every human duty ; 


THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 155 

the world is the theatre where we are to show 
whether we are Christians in profession or in 
deed. And there is no action of our lives, 
which concerns the interests of others, in which 
we do not either violate or obey a Christian 
law. I cannot therefore illustrate a moral 
duty without, at the same time, enforcmg a 
precept of religion ”(1) 

If we admit, for the sake of argument, some 
good results to the health from the use of in¬ 
toxicating drinks^ we shall be obliged to confess 
that there is, to say the least, great danger to 
the mind, inasmuch as the brain, its organ, is 
peculiary liable to be influenced by alcohol. 
Now as the behef of the ti’uth is God’s ap¬ 
pointed means of leading men to heaven, and 
as we have seen that intoxicating drink weakens 
the power of self control stej) by step, so far 
therefore as it exerts any influence; at all, it is 
of an evil character. We must of necessity 
conclude that it cannot be innocent, or it 
would not so injure the mind, and prevent the 
realization of all the joys of the ‘'common 
salvation.” It is easy to quote a text detached 
from its context, or with sham humiiity to 
pray for ‘light but there are many to be 
found who pray unconsciously over the Bible, 


(1) Sermon.s. 



156 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

with the desire to find themselves right, and he 
who does so will generally succeed ; hut “let 
such persons beware lest they be found guilty of 
using the book of God as a mere stalking horse 
of their owni unhallowed appetites, and drag¬ 
ging it, with impious hand, to obstruct the 
advancing intelligence, order, and holiness of 
the human race.” Beware of the morality that 
has policy, not principle, for its foundation, for 
it will sooner or later lead astray. 

Upon what gTOunds do we find the Chris¬ 
tian church sanctioning and supporting many 
schemes of benevolence? Because of their in¬ 
timate connection with the progress of relig¬ 
ion. Is it saying too much when we affirm 
that the temperance movement has done the 
same ? We believe that “ next to the diffu¬ 
sion of the glorious Gospel, no blessing could 
be given to our earth so great as the abolition 
of all intoxicating drink.”(1) And, judged by 
past efforts, we may safely say that it has done 
much even to purify the church itself. 

But we go a step further. If a member of a 
Christian community is known to frequent a 
theatre, a horse race, or even play at cards, at 
once he is liable to be brought up for a breach 
of membership. Should he ask for the partic- 


( 1) Eev. W. Jay. 




THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 


157 


ular text, that states plainly, “ Thou shalt not 
play at cards,” &c., he is reminded at once, 
that “ The Bible contains certain principles, 
not always defined ; but which as they are 
evolved, one after another, and are successively 
brought to bear upon the opinions and man¬ 
ners of Christianized nations, do actually re¬ 
move from them those flagrant evils which had 
accumulated in the course of time, and which, 
so long as they are prevalent, abate very much 
the rehgious sensibilities of those who are most 
conscientious. ” (1) 

3. Whatever tends to make men happy becomes 
a fulfilment of the tvill of God, and whatever tends 
to render man miserable is opposed to God's will, 
t Nothing can be plainer than that the design 
of God’s j)rovidence and redemption is to 
make the world better, and therefore happier: 
as Dr. Gumming says, “it is as much the de¬ 
sign of the Gospel to make us happy as it is 
to make us good and we presume that this 
is the ground upon which soup kitchens, rag¬ 
ged schools, clothing clubs, penny banks, are 
all taken under the patronage of the Christian 
public. The good are happy in seeing, sus¬ 
taining, and promoting the happiness of others. 
No one ever thinks of asking for the chapter 
(1) Isaac Taylor. 


14 



158 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

and verse for these, or for the establishment 
of a drinking fountain, or a dining hall. It is 
enough for all practical purposes to know that 
by such means the happiness of the people will 
be thereby increased. We have long been of 
opinion, that false ideas of what constitutes real 
happiness is at the root of most of the miseries 
of the people, and they have yet to be taught 
that the fewest wants a man has, the greater 
his prospect of real happiness. “ A man’s life 
does not consist in the abundance of things 
which he jpossesseth.” Every shilling spent is 
certainly a seed sown and will bear fruit either 
of an evil or a good quality, some ten, some 
twenty, some thirty-fold. It behoves us there¬ 
fore to ask whether this temperance move¬ 
ment ought not to be placed, to say the least, 
side by side with the other benevolent enter¬ 
prises of the day. Moreover, the general 
adoption of these principles would do more to 
aid the people in self-elevation (which after all 
is the best kind of help), than all the other 
schemes put together. Only let the people 
leave off their drinking habits, and more than 
half the “benevolent societies” would die a 
natural death, inasmuch as the “feeder” to 
them would be withdrawn. It has always ap¬ 
peared to us that the temperance movement is 


THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTUIE. 


159 


virtually a practical reflex of the Lord’s prayer, 
for its whole tendency is to aid in securing 
purity, food, and protection of hfe, thus pro¬ 
moting universal happiness, and hastening the 
approach of the “ good time coming.” 

That is blind benevolence which seeks 
merely to deal vrith effects wLile it neglects 
causes. You might just as well try to “blow 
up Mount Lebanon with the sigh of a butter¬ 
fly,” as to stay the evils resulting from drink 
by establishing counter-attractions, so long as 
the character of alcohol remains as it is, for it is 
certain, that the universal gTatification of this 
appetite or passion^ without limit, would, in a 
very few years, not only destroy society, but 
absolutely put an end to the w hole human race. 
The evil, therefore, that cannot be cured by 
palliation, condemns itself to death. Suppose 
nothing effectual can be done, what wfll the 
end of these things be ? Must it go on ? Is 
there any reason? Say rather, God helj^ing 
you, you will give the benefit of your example 
to that which has the tendency to do the most 
good. That which is morally right and good 
in its own nature is plainly our duty, wLether 
expressly enjoined or exemphfied in the Word 
of God or not. 

The holier a man lives, and the plainer his 


160 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

habits, the more liable he is to fall under the in^ 
■^luence of alcohol ; for this simple reason, that 
the more his body is free from the action of in¬ 
toxicating di*inks, the quicker is its action when 
occasionally taken—one glass, a Httle stronger 
than nsiial, or a little more susceptibility 
through bodily infirmity, has frequently given 
spur enough to a man to say and to do that 
which, without its influence, would never have 
been said or done. To use such a dangerous 
article is not the way to “ avoid all appearance 
of evil.” Every law of natmre is as truly bind¬ 
ing as any law or word of revelation, and 
if the teachings of science are to be observed, 
then we cannot help coming to the conclusion 
that the very use of intoxicating drinks as a 
beverage, is a violation of the physical laws, 
and that knowingly to persist in such violation 
is to oppose the will of God, and thus become 
guilty of a moral wrong—in other words, we 
deserve to hear the words, “ He is joined to 
his idols, let him alone.” 

4. God will not do for us, that lohich we can 
do for ourselves. —In 1845, the Kev. C. Finney 
said, “ The time has come that it can no longer 
be innocent in a church to stand aloof from this 
glorious reformation. The time was, when 
this o)uld be done ignorantly. The time has 


THE PILLAB OF SCEIPrUKE. 


161 


been, when ministers and Christians could 
enjo}' revivals, notwithstanding poison was 
used among them. But since light has been 
thrown upon the subject, and it has been found 
that the use is only injurious, no church mem¬ 
ber or minister can be innocent and stand 
neutral in the cause. They must speak out 
and take sides. And if they do not take ground 
on one side, their influence is on the other 
. . . . But now the subject has come up, and 
has been discussed, and is understood, no man 
can shut his eyes upon the truth. The man’s 
hands are red with blood who stands aloof from 
the temperance cause.’’ If this was true, then, 
what ought to be said now ? When the prac¬ 
tice of temperance was yet an experiment, 
and ‘‘distance lent enchantment to the view” 
of its flrst promoters, there might have been a 
shoio and hut a show of plausibility in with¬ 
holding co-operation ; but now, after 30 years, 
the case is altered, for facts abundantly testify 
that as intemperance is a self-inflicted curse, and 
can he removed hy huma7i instrumentality, it is 
impious to expect God to do what we can do if 
we like, and do cfflciently by the use of ordinary 
means. Take as an illustration the following 
fact from the Life of Eev. H. Bourne, the 
founder of the Primitive Methodists. 


FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 


Districts in which Teetotalism had made great progress. 

Districts. 

Travelling 

preachers. 

Increase for 
the year. 

Sunderland. 

. 64 

1964 

Nonvicli. 

. 58 

947 

Manchester. 

. 48 

922 

Brinkworth. 

. 105 

1214 

Total. 

. 275 

5047 

Districts in which Teetotalism had not made great progress. 

Districts. 

Travelling 

preachers. 

Increase for 
the year. 

Tunstall. 

. 63 

331 

Nottingham.. 

. 45 

174 

Hull. 

. 99 

198 

Toronto.. 

. 6 

242 

Total.. 

. 213 

995 


It is not necessary to inquire amid tlie 
circle of theology, whether alcohol is beneficial 
or injurious, inasmuch as such a question can 
only be answered by chemical and physiological 
evidence ; and by a sincere inquirer after truth, 
only one conclusion can be formed, viz., that 
alcohol is “ dietetically a Poison, and inorally a 
Curse,'’ and ought therefore to be abandoned. 

The Church ought not to have left this work 
to temperance societies to have performed ; it 
is a reproach to them, inasmuch as by the 
principles of the New Testament, “ they should 




















THE PILLAB OF SCRIPTURE. 


163 


be ready for every good work.” But, alas! the 
more unnatural a bad habit, the harder it is to 
be cured, even among those who profess and 
call themselves Christians ; and even when it 
has been got rid of, we find that it is easier to 
break oft' a bad habit, than to get rid of the ill 
effects of it. 

Sometimes it is pleaded as an excuse, that 
‘‘ intemperance springs from the depravity of the 
human heartf and that the only cure is a new 
heart This is altogether a mistake. How is 
it that teetotalers do not get drunk? Many 
of them have hearts quite as bad as drinkers. 
The only answer you can give is this, “ because 
they never drink.” So that we perceive it is 
not a new heart, but a new habit that is required. 
What would be said of a man who pra^^ed for 
a new heart and yet continued in any other 
evil way ? First forsake your evil ways ;— 
cease to do evil, and then learn to do well. 

Drunkards are just the people that ought to 
sign.” Why these more than others? “Be¬ 
cause they don’t know how to govern them¬ 
selves !” Indeed, and upon what scriptural 
grounds are they to abstain andi you to con¬ 
tinue drinking? If theii’ moral power did not 
prevent them forming drunken habits, how can 
you expect it to do so now that they have 


164 THE FOUE PILLAES OF TEMPEEANC®. 

fallen? Universal experience, alas, testifies 
that a drunkard is not only as a rule moralhj 
indisposed, but intellectually incapable, which 
is not the case with the thief and the liar, in¬ 
asmuch as these are moral delinquents. Wo 
see in this objection, as in other things, that 
the “religion of taste is one thing ; the religion 
of conscience another.” Nevertheless, we con¬ 
tend that the “ Church must do its duty ere 
the religious health of the j)eople can be estab¬ 
lished ; the performance of duty is the soul of 
power ; the age of miracles is past, the age of 
means is present; to that we are urged.” Or, 
as Sydney Smith says : “We are 23laced hero 
to remind, to warn, to detect, to caution, to 
blame, and to praise, and that man is a trai¬ 
tor to his country, who thunders grief and 
terror against awkward vice, and holds parley 
mth ifieasing error and popular sin.”(l) 

But, it is said, “ the grace of God will keep a 
man soberB Yes, so it will, provided it keeps 
the drink out of his body. Regeneration does 
not alter a man’s physical constitution, it only 
operates upon his moral and spiritual nature. 
We therefore oppose a physical evil with a 
physical remedy, just the same as wo call in 
the doctor to a case of fever first, and when 


(1) “Sermons.” 



TSE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 165 

that has been cured, the minister can give his 
spiritual advice with a fair prosjiect of success. 
For “if you care for your body and care noth¬ 
ing for your soul, youi' care for youi’ body, if 
it is wise, shall secure a benefit ; that benefit, 
however, will not avail to counteract 'the mis¬ 
chief that is done by neglect of your soul. On 
the other hand, if a man cares for his soul and 
is negligent of his body, all his piety will not 
keep off infection, will not keep down disease 
and pain.”(l) 

“It is not enough that there be a generally 
correct faith in the Gospel to secure universal 
rightness of action. It will not do to say that 
if a man’s heart be changed, he will have a 
knowledge of all duties, and will perform 
them ; that the Christian cannot live in sin ; 
that morality and godliness will always go 
together. This is true to a certain extent, but 
the doctrine requires limitation. A man may 
be very godly in the main, and yet he may not 
be acquainted with all his obligations, uor, 
knowing them, may he discharge them. Uni¬ 
versal observation proves the possibility of 
moral ignorance and moral weakness being 
applied to some measure of spirituality. In 
aU ages and all societies there have been men 


(_!) Lynch. 



166 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

who have had the fear of God within them, 
and have nevertheless not detected their duty 
in all things, nor done it; yea, have lived in 
the constant performance of acts contradicted 
by the spirit and letter of Christianity. The 
judgment may be unenlightened, and the will 
may be feeble ; men, good men, may need to 
have their duty pointed out, being unable to 
apply general principles; they may need to 
have their duty enforced, being indisposed to 
apply them ; and one reason doubtless why so 
many hve in systematic neglect of Christian 
moralities is to be found in the absence of 
particular instructions and admonitions.”(l) 

Our Lord has also taught us that we are not 
to rush into danger, but rather copy his ex¬ 
ample on the occasion when he said, “ Thou 
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”—the 
Christian man is expected to resist evil, and 
not seek temptation. It has been clearly 
demonstrated that whatever affects the bi'ain 
affects the mind, the will, and the moral power, 
inasmuch as the intellectual and moral powers 
are greatly dependent upon the physical 
organization for their development, the brain 
especially. How then can a man reasonably 
expect to be preserved from drunkenness 

(1) Bev. A. J. Morris, “ Eeligion and Business.” 



THE PILLAE OF SCEIPTUKE. 167 

"wliile he O/Ontiiiues to persist in using the only 
thing that can produce it ? He might just as 
reasonably expect to be preserved from fever 
if he would needlessly go among the peoj)le 
who were suffering from that disease. 

It was once the fashion to look upon the 
ague in marshy districts and the plague in 
dirty cities as a visitation of Divine provi¬ 
dence, but now we know that ague can be 
prevented by proper drainage, and the plague 
of London destroyed by fire removing the dirt 
and filth. So of small pox, it does not re¬ 
quire a text of Scripture to teach us to apply 
vaccination, nor a verse stating that if we 
W'ould avoid the cholera, “look after your 
drains.” In all these, common sense (which 
is not very common after all) says, use the 
proper means and then you may expect God 
to bless you ; even the heathen god advises 
the “putting of the shoulder to the wheel, if 
we are to get out of the ruck.” 

Another example is presented in a letter 
addressed by Lord Palmerston, as Home 
Secretary, to the Presbytery of Edinburgh, in 
answer to their inquiry whether he intended 
to advise the Queen to order a day of fasting, 
humiliation, and prayer, to be held in Scot¬ 
land, in order to supplicate Divine Providence 


168 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

to stay tlie cholera which afflicted the people 
in 1854. He says :— 

“ The Maker of the universe has established 
certain laws of nature for the planet in which 
we live, and the weal or woe of mankind de¬ 
pends upon the observance or neglect of those 
laws. One of those laws connects health with 
the absence of those gaseous exhalations 
which proceed from over-crowded human be¬ 
ings, or from decomposing substances, whether 
animal or vegetable ; and those same laws 
render sickness the almost inevitable conse¬ 
quence of exposure to those noxious influences. 
But it has at the same time pleased Providence 
to place it within the power of man to make such 
arrangements as loill prevent or disperse such 
exhalations so as to render them harmless; 
and it is the duty of man to attend to those 
laws of nature, and to exert the faculties 
which Providence has thus given to man for 
his own welfare. 

“The recent visitation of cholera, which 
has for the moment been mercifully checked, 
is an awful warning given to the people of 
this realm, that they have too much neg¬ 
lected their duty in this respect, and that 
those persons with whom it rested to j)urify 
towns and cities, and to prevent or remove 


THE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 


1G9 


the causes of disease, have not been sufficiently 
active in regard to such matters. Lord Pal¬ 
merston would, therefore, suggest that the 
best course which the people of this country 
can pursue to deserve that the further progress 
of the cholera should be stayed, will be to em¬ 
ploy the interval that will elapse between the 
present time and the beginning of next spring 
in planning and executing measures by which 
those portions of their towns and cities which 
are inhabited by the poorest classes, and 
which from the nature of things must most 
need purification and improvement, may be 
freed from those caufies and sources of con¬ 
tagion, which, if allowed to remain, will infalli¬ 
bly breed pestilence, and be fruitful in death, 
in spite of all the prayers and fa,stings of a 
united but inactive nation. When man has 
done his utmost for his own safety, then is the 
time to invoke the blessing of Heaven to give 
effect to his exertions.” 

“ For a man to sow tares in his field and to 
encourage others to sow tares upon the face of 
the country, and then to expect that by the 
goodness of God, the countiy will be covered 
with wheat, is grossly to insult that goodness. 
And it is no less to the grace of the Gospel to 
expect, that from the present drinking customa 
15 


370 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

of the great body of the people of England, a 
temperate nation will grow up.”(l) 

Truly did John Milton write : “What more 
foul sin among us than drunkenness ; and who 
can be ignorant that if the importation of 
wine, and the use of all strong drink were for- 
hid, it would be both clean rid the possibility 
of committing that odious vice, and men 
might afterwards live happil}" and health¬ 
fully Avithout the use of those intoxicating 
liquors.” 

The Bible abounds with illustrations of this 
principle : the most striking is that which oc¬ 
curred during the ministry of our Lord, who 
on one occasion manifested his glory and his 
power, just so far as was absolutely needed, 
and no further. Let us call to mind the main 
facts. “Jesus loved Martha, and Mary, and 
Lazarus,” but it came to pass that amid the 
happy circle, sickness and death entered quite 
unexpectedly, and removed one from among 
them. So great was the grief of the relatives 
and friends, that, as the Man of Sorrows stood 
with them, his heart was touched with their 
loss, and “ Jesus wept ;” but that was not all ; 
he comforted them with ivords, and cheered 
them by his acts. He then went to the grave. 


(1) Archdea''on Jeffreys. 



THE PILLAE OF SCEIPTTJKE. 171 

but lo! a great stone lay upon its mouth. 
Sui’ely the power that could ‘raise the dead 
could remove the stone ? Yes, but human 
hands had placed it there, and human hands 
were sufficient to remove it again ; hence 
Jesus said, ‘^roll ye away the stone,” and when 
they had done their part, he said to the dead, 
“Lazarus, come forth.” But yet again human 
agency was required to complete the work, for 
seeing he was bound with a napkin ; “ Loose 
him and let him go,” was the divine com¬ 
mand. In like manner the same voice s])eaks 
to us—as he looks down upon the multit udes 
dead in trespasses and sins, with the great 
stone of the liquor traffic over their moral 
sepulchre which human hands and laws have 
reared— ye away the stone!” and 
when that has been done, he will say to the 
dead, “ Come forth and this world, so long 
the abode of sin and suffering, shall rejoice in 
her spiritual freedom, and achieve higher con¬ 
quests than “ eye hath seen, or the heart of 
man can conceive.” 

“ It is far easier to dream than to reason, to 
fancy than to investigate, to speculate than to 
demonstrate ; but not so safe, nor so condu¬ 
cive to the knowledge of the truth and the well¬ 
being of man. And he that does not love the 


172 THE FOUB PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

truth more than he loves his own opinions, 
will never go very deep into the well after tho 
water of truth to satisfy his own thirst, and 
cannot be a safe guide to others.”(1) 

Again, when Amalek came down to oppose 
the passage of Israel in their progress towards 
the promised land, Joshua was commanded to 
take chosen men and go and fight with Amalek. 
Easy would it have been for Him who had di¬ 
vided the sea before the Hebrews, and supplied 
them with water out of the rock, now to have 
dispersed Amalek with a word, while they 
should only have been required, as on another 
memorable occasion, to stand still and see the 
salvation of God. But such was not His pleas¬ 
ure. A battle was to be fought with this warlike 
people ; and, like any other battle, the conflict 
raged, with various and fluctuating success. 
While the contest was going on, they had still 
before them the signal of the Divine presence 
in the remarkable circumstance that, when 
Moses lifted up his hands, Israel prevailed, 
and when he let them down, Amalek prevailed, 
and means had to be added by which the hands of 
Moses were supported when they became heavy ; 
and in the end Amalek was dispersed before 
the host of Joshua. Would to God the Chris- 


(1 Sylvester Graham. 



THE PILI.AE OF SCRIPTTJEE. 173 

tian churcli had upheld the temperance reform¬ 
ers by their prayers, in the great battle against 
the giant Drink! Victory ere now would 
most assuredly have attended the conflict. 

Take another illustration. Peter was cast 
into prison, but when the shades of night 
were gathered around, an angel was sent to 
deliver him. After awaking him, and break¬ 
ing his chains, the angel led him forth through 
the gates, which opened to them ; but imme¬ 
diately they gained the street, ‘^forthwith the an¬ 
gel departed.'' Notwithstanding the disciples 
were at the very time praying for his safety, 
and he had thus been miraculously delivered, 
departed and went to another place." 

How much we need the advice given by 
Bishop EUicott, to “ Pray against that bias, 
which by importing its own foregone conclu¬ 
sions into the word of Scripture, and by refus¬ 
ing to see, or to acknowledge, what makes 
against its own prejudices, has proved the 
greatest known hindrance to all fair interpre¬ 
tation ; and has tended more than anything 
else in the world, to check the free course of 
Divine truth.”(l) 

5. Emn when a good thing has become per¬ 
verted, it is right that it should he destroyed. 


(1) ‘Aids to Faith,’ p. 421. 



174 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

rorilie sake of argument we assume that in¬ 
toxicating drinks arc “ good creatures of God 
if they were, it does not necessarily follow that 
they are “good for food.” Blocks of stone 
are good creatures of God, but no one in their 
senses thinks of having them dished up for 
dinner ; or poisoned berries boiled for break¬ 
fast. Even in a state of innocence Adam and 
Eve were taught abstinence from some things for 
a particular reason. The tree of the knowledge 
of good and evil wus selected as the test of 
self-denial and loyalty ; and diey had to abstain 
even from that which was “good for food” 
and pleasant to the eye, and calculated to make 
one loise” so that abstinence is not quite a new 
^doctrine among the sons of men. 

We have another illustration furnished in 
the Sacred Scriptures ; when the old ivorld, 
which had been pronounced ‘veiy good,' with 
its teeming multitudes of men and w'omen, be¬ 
came corrupt before God : w^e are told that 
“ it repented the Lord that he had made man 
on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.’* 
And the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom 
I have created from the face of the earth, both 
man and beast, and the creeping things, and 
the fowls of the air.” 


raE PILLAR OF SCRIPTURE. 175 

“And it was so,” with the exception of Noah 
and his family, and a specified number of each 
of the living creatures. For ‘the flood came 
and swept them all away a heavy judgment 
truly for an accumulated load of guilt. 

Again, when men began to build the Tower 
of Babel, their very language was taken away, 
and they were scattered over the earth, be¬ 
cause they perverted their faculties and did 
evil in the sight of the Lord. 

But the most striking is that which occurs 
in the history of the Israelites. On one occa¬ 
sion we are told that in consequence of their 
sins God sent among them “fiery serpents, 
and they bit the people, and much people 
died in the midst of wrath, in answer to 
prayer, God remembered mercy, and com¬ 
manded Moses to make a serpent of brass and 
set it upon a pole, with the promise that who¬ 
soever should look upon it should live. “ And 
it came to pass that whoever had been bitten, 
if he looked, he lived, and the plagne was 
stayed.” Was it any wonder that this token 
of God’s special care was regarded as a trea¬ 
sure, and carried by them in ail their journey- 
ings ? But in process of time, it became 
perverted nto an instrument of idolatry ; God 


176 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

did then what He has always done in such 
cases, he raised up a reformer. We are told 
that King Hezekiah broke in pieces the brazen 
serpent, though God commanded it to be made 
and they, had preserved it 700 years. “And he 

DID THAT WHICH WAS RIGHT IN THE SIGHT OF THE 

Lord, and the Lord was with him and prospered 
him.” 

If such examples be so conclusive, how for¬ 
cibly does the exhortation come, “ Destroy not 
him with thy meat for whom Christ died.” It 
is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, 
nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, 
or is offended, or is made weak.” 

We have assumed that the dilnk is a crea¬ 
ture of God,” but such is really not the case at 
all. It is altogether an kwrificial production 
of MAN, and can only be made by destroying the 
good creature ‘sugar.’ Alcohol exists nowhere 
in nature until man perverts the good to make 
it, and then, as a punishment for his sin, he 
has to labor under this self-inflicted curse. 

. John Foster, in speaking of the responsibility 
of certain persons, said, “ they were aware of 
the necessary tendency, and informed of the 
actual effect of that supreme of the iniquities 
of earth, the institution of castes.” If such 


THE PILLaK of SCEIPTURE. 


177 


principles are sound, then how much more so 
ought they to be applied to this giant evil at 
home! 

As you would aid in the destruction of the 
system of caste, so aid in the destruction of 
the system of drinking. Prove it to be right 
to do so, then it ought to be done —and what¬ 
ever of this kind should be done, should be 
done b}^ the best possible machinery, and that 
machinery is the Christian church. If with 
acknowledged imperfect and deficient means, 
the temperance enterprise during the last 
thirty years has made such rapid progress 
notwithstanding the studied opposition of 
medical men, professors of religion, and the 
literary world, what might be reasonably ex¬ 
pected could we only secure the co-operation 
of all these ? Pest assured that God approves 
of the work, or he w’-ould not have so blessed 
the labors of the past. Christ, from heaven, 
must watch with interest this fight with the 
powers of darkness. Cheered by his smiles, 
strengthened by his strength, and supi)orted 
by his grace, we rightly expect ultimately to 
come olf more than conquerors, and when at 
length victory shall be claimed, it wfill not be 
the least of aU the consolations which will 


178 THE FOUE PILLAKS OF TEMPEEANCE. 

follow this bloodless warfare, to be able to say, 
“ I have foug'ht a good fight,” and to receive 
from Him the assurance of “Well done, good 
and faithful servant.” 


Wlio hatli WoeP 
Wlio Hath. Sorrow P 
Who hath Contentions P 
Who hath I^abblingP 

Proverbs xxiii. 29. 






IV. 

THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


“A cripple on tlie right road beats a racer on the 
«Tong. ’ ’—Bacon. 

f XPEKIENCE makes fools wise,” says 
the old proverb. We are obliged to 
confess, however, that in some cases it 
' takes a great number of lessons. And 
after all, in many instances the wisdom, 
if it comes at all. comes too late to be 
of any practical service. 

A man may be entirely deficient in the power 
of reasoning, and altogether destitute of any 
knowledge which science might impart, either 
as to the general laws which govern his health, 
or the nature and effects of various poisons 
He may also be quite at sea as a theologian, 
or a Biblical critic. But his own experience, 
and the experience of others, is a volume he 
cannot very well help studying, although it is 



180 THE FOUE PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

too true that many prefer blindly to copy 
others rather than examine for themselves the 
why and the wherefore of the many things 
they take into the body, from day to day. 

If experience be fairly consulted, the testi¬ 
mony from every quarter will most assuredly 
result in adding another Pillar to support the 
temperance movement. 'When first the idea 
was started that men could live and work with¬ 
out any kind of intoxicating drink, it was con¬ 
sidered to be so utterly absurd, that even the 
men who were banded together to battle with 
intemperance under the title of the “ Temper¬ 
ance (i. e., Moderation) Society,” were its 
strongest opponents. But when one a^ainer 
after another arose and said, “ I have ^ed it’* 
scepticism gave way ; facts upset theories, and 
during the last thirty years, evidence has been 
collecting from all parts of the world, to a 
large extent from those who have tried both 
sides of the question, and the result is, that in 
almost every town and village in the country, 
some can now be found who, by experience^ 
will testify that men can live, work, and enjoy 
life, without any kind of intoxicating drink. 
Surely this is an indication that the better day 
is dawning, when men shall be wise enough to 
drive the curse away altogether. 


THE PILLAB OF EXPEEIENCE. 181 

It is not to be wondered at, that the progress 
of temperance principles has been compara¬ 
tively slow, when we take into consideration 
the vast obstacles wdth which it had to con¬ 
tend, for alcohol has for it everything that can 
make a prejudice deep and strong—“ venera¬ 
ble antiquity, high authority, general consent,” 
and a seductive character. To it might be 
addressed the words which one of the Koman 
poets applied to the goddess of Thieves :— 

“O fair Laverna, grant me power to cheat, 

And yet appear arrayed in saintly gnise ; 

Let sable night enshroud my deep deceit, 

And clouds conceal my fraud from prying eyes.” 

But brighter days are in store ; even now 
streaks of light appear in the distance, This 
delusion shall yet be numbered among the 
things of the past. 

Expekience, so far as we have gone, clearly 
proves the following things :— 

I. Abstinence is beneficial to Health. On this 
point we cannot do better than quote from a 
speech once delivered by the eminent physio¬ 
logist, Dr. Carpenter. “ I am addressing my¬ 
self to the question of the habitual use of what 
are called moderate quantities. I say that 
alcohol, under ordinary circumstances, in the 


182 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

ordinary condition of men and women, pro-' 
duces a had effect and not a good one. Now, 
what does experience say? It is often said to 
us, that we have not the opportunity of making 
experiments upon the same set of men ; and 
that getting persons in different conditions and 
contrasting them with each other, gives no 
reliable result. Now it so happens that some 
years ago I had brought before me a very re¬ 
markable instance of the comparative effect of 
the two systems upon the same set of men 
during a lengthened period. I venture to be¬ 
lieve there are 'many here who have never read 
anything I have written upon the subject, and 
this, therefore, will be new to them. A gentle¬ 
man had the command of a merchant ship 
from Australia, -with a small crew of sixteen or 
eighteen men and two or three passengers. 
Soon after leaving port she sprung a leak, so 
bad that it was necessary for crew and pas¬ 
sengers to take turn and turn about at the 
pumps to keep it down at aU. The winds were 
adverse to his putting into the Cape, and he 
was obliged to make the best of his way home 
to this country ;—a voyage, at that time, of 
ninety or one hundred days. He found very 
soon that on the ordinary rations the men 
were losing strength, and could not keep up 


THE PILLAB OF EXPEEIENCE. 


183 


tlie requisite exertions at tne pumps. When 
fatigued, the men would take their glass of 
grog, and turn into their berths and sleep it 
off. They had very little appetite for food, and 
then- flesh was failing them. My friend thought 
he. would try a change of plan. He stopped 
the grog altogether. Now, what would the 
alcoholists say to this ? They would say he 
took away so much force or so much food. 
But what did he do ? He had the biscuit 
boiled to a stiff pudding, and gave the men 
that and cocoa at the end of each spell of work. 
The experiment succeeded wonderfully. The 
men soon recovered their strength, and though 
they had to keep up the pumping all the rest 
of the voyage, they were brought into port in 
as fine a condition as ever any set of men were 
brought in in their lives. Why, all our most 
experienced Arctic navigators and voyagers 
have come to this unquestionable conclusion, 
that for resisting for any lengthened period 
the severest cold, there is nothing to be com¬ 
pared with fat food, and that alcoholic liquors, 
so far from being beneficial, are positively in¬ 
jurious. It is the testimony of my venerated 
friend, Sir John Eichardson, the. companion of 
Franklin in his first disastrous expedition, that 
when they were reduced to feeding upon a 


184 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

lichen which grew upon the rocks, and which 
they had to dig up from beneath the snow, 
even then the spirit was injurious to them ; it 
gave them a temporary warmth, but they felt 
the cold more severely afterwards. That also 
is the experience of the English and American 
whalers, and of hundreds and thousands of 
our best navigators. What better test of the 
power of alcohol to maintain heat can be ob¬ 
tained, than the experience of those who have 
to resist the greatest extremity of cold, and 
for the longest time ?” 

2. Life is 2 ^^'olonged by true Temperance. 
The extensive experience of temperance soci¬ 
eties has proved that, in every climate, occupa¬ 
tion, and grade in life, alcoholic drinks, as an 
ordinary beverage, are not only absolutely 
unnecessary, but productive of unmixed evil. 
The question is no longer between drimkenness 
and total abstinence, which has long been set 
at rest by Nelson’s Tables, but between total 
abstinence and the most moderate use of wine, 
beer, or alcohol in any shape. The temperance 
Insurance offices and Sick clubs have proved, 
by an expeiience extending over an entire 
generation, and at least half a million of lives, 
that mortality is increased one-third, and sick¬ 
ness one-lialf by the amount ordinarily drunk 


THE PILLAE OF EAi'EEIENCE. 


185 


by tlie industrious respectable classes who in¬ 
sure their lives, and who are certified to the 
directors, on their admission, as strictly 
moderate. 

The distinctive feature of “ The Temperance 
and General Provident Institution” consists in 
its comprising two separate departments; one 
open to the public, as in other offices, the 
other confined to persons pledging themselves to 
abstain from all intoxicating beverages. The 
rates for assurance are the same in both de¬ 
partments, but the receipts and claims of each 
are kept distinct. 

All the data bearing on the question it had 
been possible to collect vrarranted the opinion, 
that the mortality of entire abstainers from 
alcoholic drinks, as a class, would contrast very 
favorably with that experienced by Life Offices 
in general, and led to the conclusion, that the 
benefits of Life Assurance might be secured to 
them on specially advantageous terms. This 
Institution was established with the view of 
testing this conclusion ; and experience, ex¬ 
tending over twenty years, has fully estab¬ 
lished its accuracy, and to an extent far beyond 
the anticipations of its founders. 

Two divisions of profits have now taken 
place. In 1856 the surplus which had accrued 


186 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

to the whole life department of the temperance 
section gave a reversionary bonus, ranging, 
according to the age of the a3siu'ed,/?'0wi 35 to 
75 per cent, on the amount of premiums ];)aid. 

In the whole life department of the general 
section, the bonus ranged from 23 to 50 per 
cent. 

The recent calculation of the assets and 
liabihties has given a further reversionary 
bonus to the temperance section from 35 to 80 
per cent., and to the general section, from 24 
to 59 per cent. 

The plain English of which is, that notwith¬ 
standing the fact that there are in the tem¬ 
perance section many whose lives have been 
injured by the early use of these drinks, the 
life of a total abstainer is icorth upon an average 
20 per cent, more than that of the moderate 
di-inker. While, on the other hand, those 
engaged in the liquor traffic, have to pay the 
Accidental Life Assurance Company 50 per 
cent, more than their neighbor the baker or 
tailor, thus proving that the publican falls a 
victim to his own traffic. 

3. Life is greatly shortened by drink. 

“ In the last report of the Registrar General 
of births, deaths, and marriages, in England, 
among 112 causes of mortality is • Alcoholism. 


THE PILLAB OF EXPERIENCE. 187 

The term is used to signify the direct agency 
of alcoliol. The deaths are registered under 
two sections, delirium tremens, and intemper¬ 
ance. In the ten years ending with 1860, 
more than 8000 deaths are registered as 
caused by alcoholism. The following is for 
the three years ending 1860 :— 

1858. 1859. 1860. Total. 

Deaths from Delirium Tremens 424 545 457 1426 

Deaths from Intemperance.... 288 345 318 951 

Totals. 712 890 775 2377 

“ These figures are sufficiently appalling, and 
yet no one will imagine that they represent 
the full amount of mortality produced by the 
direct agency of alcohol,/b?’ charity towards the 
dead and an indisposition to wound the feelings 
of survivors, would in many cases hide the real 
cause of death. Still they are valuable ; they 
show that these suicides by alcohol (and no 
other term than self-mui’der adequately re¬ 
presents alcoholism) was two a day. To see 
these figures in a stronger point of view, let us 
compare them with deaths from some other 
causes. 

1858. 1859. 18G0. Total. 

Accidental poisoning. 282 279 240 / 

Suicide by poison. 119 112 156 J 

“ Thus the whole of the deaths by poison 





188 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

were 1,188, or less by one-half than those.from 
alcoholism. 

Add together the number of deaths :— 

By poison in three years. 1188 

By murder and manslaughter in three years 1059 

Total.. 2247 

being 130 less than from alcohol alone ”{!) 

The abstainer ds not only less prone than 
others to disease, but also more capable of 
resisting it should it attack him, as may be 
seen from the following testimony :— 

“I have been engaged upwards of thirty 
years in medical practice,” said Dr. John 
Cheyne, Physician-General to the Forces in 
Ireland, “ a great part of the time extensively, 
and all this while I have been attentively 
observing men who hved in ajl respects alike, 
save in the quantity of liquors which they 
drank, and I can conscientiously affirm that 
longevity is more resisted by excess in that re~ 
spect, than by all the other hurtful influences 
which prematurely extinguish the lamp of life; 
insomuch, that were an allegorical personifi¬ 
cation of the various views by which men 
shorten their lives, to be honestly painted. 
Drunkenness would appear as a bloated giant. 


(1) T. A Smith. Paper at Temperance Congress, 1862. 





THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 189 

while the rest might be represented as obscure 
and deformed pigmies.” 

4. Heat can he best endured without intoxi¬ 
cating drink. 

This has been abundantly proved by the 
experience of such noble warriors as Havelock 
and his brave “teetotal saints’’ as well as by 
the abundant testimony of military men and 
civilians in India, &c. Sir Charles Napier on 
reviewing his troops on the 11th May, 1849, at 
Fort WilUam, said to the men of the 96th ;— 
“ Let me give you a bit of advice—that is don’t 
drink. I know young men do not think much 
about advice from old men. They put their 
tongue in their cheek, and think they know a 
good deal better than the old cove Avho is 
giving them advice. But if you drink, you’re 
done for. You will either be invalided or die. 
I know two regiments in this country, one 
drank, the other didn’t drink. The one that 
didn’t drink is one of the finest regiments, 
and has got on as well as any regiment in exist¬ 
ence. The one that did drink has been all 
but destroyed. For any regiment for which I 
have respect, and there is not one of the 
British regiments whom I don’t resjDect, I 
should always try and persuade them to keep 
from drinking. I know the *e are some who 


190 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

will drink in spite of the devil and their 
officers,—hut such men will soon be in hos¬ 
pital, and very few that go in, in this country, 
ever come out again.”(1) 

Additional evidence, after fifteen years, has 
come to hand, through public attention being, 
for a second time, drawn to a startling reve¬ 
lation concerning the state of the British Army 
in India. The leading facts were known offi¬ 
cially in 1863, but they were fully di^oilged in 
1864. Happily, also, the apphcation of re¬ 
medial measures is further advanced now than 
it was twelve months ago. How many men 
die in battle, or from wounds received in 
battle, in an army of given size within a given 
period, depends of course on the state of peace 
or war in which the country may be placed ; 
but it is a very different question how many 
men die from preventahle causes, causes which 
we have it in our power to grapple with. 

When we are told, by Commissioners who 
have made every effort to get at the truth, 
that the nation is losing from three to four 
hundred thousand pounds a year by needless 
deaths and illnesses of soldiers in India alone, 
it is indeed time to set about a remedy. In 
May, 1859, when Lord Stanley was Secretary 


(1) “Daily News.” 



THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


191 


of State for India, a Eoyal Commission was 
appointed to inquire into the rate of sickness, 
mortalitj^, and invaliding in the British and 
native armies of India ; the class of diseases 
from which such sickness and mortality mostly 
arise ; the probable causes, whether due to 
imperfections in cHmate, locality, barrack, hos¬ 
pitals, drainage, water-supply, diet, drinks, 
dress, duties, or habits of the men ; the rela¬ 
tive healthiness of different military stations 
in India ; the practicability of selecting new 
stations in substitution of such as may now be 
unhealthy ; the best mode of constructing bar¬ 
racks, huts, hospitals, and tents, in such a 
chmate as India ; the existing state of army 
medical and sanitary police at the several 
stations ; and the possibility of establishing a 
trustworthy system of military statistics. 
Lastly, they were invited to recommend re¬ 
medial measures for such evils as might be 
found to exist. The duties thus assigned to 
the Commission tend to show that the state of 
the Indian army had already been recognized 
as one of great gravity. Three or four years 
w-ere spent in the inquiry. As the Commis¬ 
sioners express very unequivocally their belief 
that the deaths of soldiers in India might be 
reduced from 69 to 20 per 1000 per annum, 


102 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

saving in this way alone about £50,000 for 
every thousand men engaged, besides giving 
greater strength and efficiency to the other 
080, it becomes important to know in what 
way the present evils are brought about. 
From some of the causes named in the Report 
we select— 

Intemperance. —“If the condition of the 
military stations, in reference to sanitary pro¬ 
visions, be the primary cause of the frightful 
mortality of English troops in India, the in¬ 
temperate habits of the m en unquestionably deepen 
the evil. The Commissariat arrangements are 
too lavish in this matter. Every British sol¬ 
dier in India has a right to purchase every 
day at his regimental canteen two drams of 
spirits, of good quality,(?) generally rum or 
arrack ; or he may substitute malt hquor for 
the spirit, a quart of the one in lieu of a dram 
of the other. Two drams are equal to the 
twentieth of a gallon ; and hence each soldier 
who avails himself of his privilege of dram-drink¬ 
ing to the fullest extent will consume 18J gallons 
of raw spirits per annum The Commis¬ 
sioners, after adverting to the deleterious re¬ 
sults of dram-drinking even in cold climates, 
add—“Of all habits, that of cortinual tippling 
is about the last which should be encouraged 


THE PILLaR op EXPERIENCE. 


193 


in such a climate as that of India ; for the 
diseases which it is observed to cause in En g- 
land are diseases from which the soldier suffers 
severely in India.” On one occasion some 
horse artillery were marching along a road 
lined with date-trees ; the men could pull 
down the pots which had been hung up to re¬ 
ceive the bhang, or date-juice. They fell in 
great numbers with apoplectic seizures* 
cerebral derangements, and fever. They said 
it was sun-stroke ; but Dr. Bird, a skilful* army 
surgeon, asserts that bhang had much more 
than the sun to do with the matter. There is 
a vicious system by which a regiment gets a 
certain amount of profit out of the spirits sold 
to the troops at the canteens. All the 
officers, with one voice, who gave evidence to 
the Commissioners, condemned the use of 
spirits hy the troops; and their estimate of malt 
liquors, in such a climate, was scarcely more 
favorable.’' Bad drainage, over-dieting, dress, 
unemployed time, and the siructure of the 
hospitals, are some of the other causes of bad 
health and mortality enumerated, but the 
frightful indulgence in intoxicating drinks is 
evidently the giant cause. Since the Commis¬ 
sioners’ Keport was published, many improve¬ 
ments have been introduced: amongst other 
17 


194 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

plans for employing the spare time of the sol¬ 
diers, and at the same time elevating them, 
Army Workshops have been established. “ The 
system has extended to five regiments of 
cavalry and thirty-two battalions of infantry. 
Most of the regiments have now reading and 
recreation rooms, where wholesome light re¬ 
freshments and cheerful amusements are ob¬ 
tainable. A large majority of the men show a 
willingness to subscribe to regimental libra¬ 
ries ; Sir Hugh Kose speaks of 705 in the 79th 
Foot, 671 in the 3rd battalion of the Rifle 
Brigade, 675 in the 2nd battalion of the same 
corps, 640 in the 81st Foot, and so on. Noth¬ 
ing could more fully corroborate the opinion, 
and justify the recommendation of the Com¬ 
missioners, than the following remark by the 
Commander-in-Chief :—‘ To this system of 
useful employment and recreation may, in a 
great measure, be attributed a considerable de¬ 
crease in the consumption of ardent spirits in 
this army, than which nothing can he more grati¬ 
fying: 

At home we have the same kind of testimo¬ 
ny. Let any one pay a visit (as we have often 
done) to our large iron works, and ask the men 
who labor constantly before the blast furnaces, 
the rollers, shinglers puddlers, &c., or go to 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 195 

the anchory glass, or pottery manufactories, it 
matters not, even di’inkers will admit, that they 
can, if they like, manage to perform their tiying 
work without the drink. In the hay or harvest 
field, farmers and their laborers have proved 
over and over again the same thing. Often 
they go further, and testify that the men do a 
larger amount of work with greater ease and 
comfort to themselves, without the drink than 
with it. 

5. Cold can he endured better without alcoholic 
drinks than with then}.. 

Captain Kennedy, the commander of Lady 
Franklin’s expedition in search of the lamented 
Sir John Franklin, said that ever since 1833 
he had practised and advocated the “ great and 
glorious principle ” of total abstinence. Very 
few, if any people, had tested the total absti¬ 
nence principles to the extent to which he and 
his gallant crew of eighteen men had tested it 
during their cruise in the Prince Albert in Lady 
Franklin’s puivate expedition. It was owing to 
their observance of the total abstinence prin¬ 
ciples that of the thirteen vessels that went out 
the same year as himself, his was the expedi¬ 
tion that accomplished the most. It accom¬ 
plished more than others, because its crew 
went out on foot journeys at a season when no 


196 THE FOUE PILLARS OP TEMPERANCE. 

othei crew would go out ; it accomplished 
more in having travelled further in one exten¬ 
ded track than any other expedition ; and it 
accomplished more because it had less than 
any other expedition with which to accomplish 
it. To what did he attribute these great re¬ 
sults ? Why simply to the fact that in his ex¬ 
pedition he had carried out the principles of 
total abstinence. They were not only enabled 
to travel when others were masquerading and 
conducting theatrical performances, but they 
also did that which other expeditions had not 
done—they travelled when they were deprived 
of the hght of the sun. During 107 days they 
had only the light of the moon and stars, with 
twilight ; nevertheless they travelled most of 
that time. There was no expedition in which 
a man could be engaged—warfare not excepted 
—which was of so trying a character as an ex¬ 
pedition to explore the Arctic regions. From 
the day on which the expeditionists set out 
till the day of their return they were exposed 
to one continued series of hardships and suf¬ 
ferings. From none of these had his crew 
been exempt. They had suffered the torments 
of snow-blindness, and he, the only one able to 
see out of six, had to guide five who were to¬ 
tally blind. Also for many miles, of six, five 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 197 

had been afflicted with Arctic lameness, the use 
of the left leg being for a time entirely taken 
away from them ; and thus afflicted the com¬ 
pany had to. travel over 200 miles through 
snow and blocks of ice, to the ship. Dui’ing 
this time they had to subsist upon only a basiu 
of gruel, served out every morning. From 
thii’st, too, they had all suffered, there being 
no water, and they were driven to slake their 
thirst with snow or ice—ice that would not 
leave their lips till it had brought away part 
of the skin, and in this plight they had to 
munch their hard biscuits at night. The men, 
however, who volunteered to explore the Arctic 
regions, partially equipped, and on temperance 
principles, were not men to shrink at trifles. 
They met their difficulties like true men, and 
as such surmounted them. Different, we be¬ 
lieve, from eveiy other expedition, the Prince 
Albert brought home all the men she took out. 
And when the crew landed at Aberdeen, expe¬ 
rienced men told him they had often ob: erved 
crews land from whaling and other Arctic ex¬ 
peditions, but never saw a crew land in so 
admirable a condition as that which character¬ 
ized the crew whom he had had the privilege to 
command, and who had not, during the whole 
of their cruise, tasted one drop of any intoxicat- 



198 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

ing beverage. Could any instance be given 
more powerfully demonstrative of tbe excel¬ 
lence of tbe principles wbicb they were that 
evening promoting? He did not care wbat 
tbe description of labor was, give bim any num¬ 
ber of men, and let balf of tbem be drinkers 
and balf abstainers, and be would pledge bis 
reputation to tbe abstainers accomj^lisbing 
more, and witb less fatigue, than tbe men wbo 
used tbe stimulants. 

6. Bodily labor can be best performed without 
these drinks. 

“Oh! madness to think use of strongest wines 
And strongest drink our chief support of health ; 
"When God, with these forbidden, made choice to rear 
His mighty champion, strong above compare, 

Whose drink was only from the limpid brook.” 

“ I will speak of cases witbin my own per¬ 
sonal knowledge. I know, and could name, 
many of tbe hardest working men, wbo for 
years bave not tasted drink, and wbo declare 
tbemselves far better without than witb it,— 
glass-blowers, forgemen, and others, wbo work'' 
in fi'ont of tbe hottest furnaces,—pressers in 
dry bouses,—farmers working out of doors in 
summer’s beat and winter’s frost, — printers 
working at tbe press,—^joiners,—bricklayers,— 
masons, &c. I know coachmen, exposed to all 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


199 


weathers, one of whom drove the night mail 
over the hills of Scotland ; I know medical men 
in large practice, driving about all day, and 
often disturbed in the night; 1 know ministers 
of religion and lecturers, among the most ani¬ 
mated and laborious in the country, in the 
habit of speaking at great length in crowded 
meetings, and often out of doors ; I know mis¬ 
sionaries laboring in tropical countries : I know 
merchants, tradesmen, clerks, &;c., of the great¬ 
est activity : I know literary men and editors 
of very sedentary habits : I know members of 
parliament and ministers of state, among the 
most constant in their attendance on the try¬ 
ing duties of parliament or of office : I know 
old men of near fourscore, children and young 
persons of all ages, nursing mothers, servants, 
in short, persons of almost every class that can 
be mentioned —I know persons under all these 
varied circumstances, who act on the system 
of total abstinence, enjoying health and vigor, 
and beheving that they are better without in¬ 
toxicating liquor than they would be with it. 

“ Beyond my personal knowledge, instances 
without end might be given from unquestion¬ 
able authoiity ; but it may suffice to mention, 
for example, the Governor of York Castle told 
me that he never knew a single instance of the 


200 THE FOUR PILLARS 6f TEMPERANCE. 

health of a prisoner suffering from his lieing 
at once deprived of intoxicating liquor.”(1) 

It is well known that when the “ gents ” at 
Cambridge are preparing for their “boat 
races,” by the laws of the club, they are bound 
to abstain until the race is over. The same 
may be said of the “ prize-fighters ”—runners, 
&c.—even Blondin did his high rope perform¬ 
ances upon the same plan; and thousands 
of hard-working men are to be found at the 
end of the week doing the work, when they no 
longer can get the drink. 

7. Mental labor can he perfornied better with¬ 
out these drinks. Kev. E. Hitchcock, Profes¬ 
sor of Chemistry, &c., Amherst College, 
America, says ;—A few years ago I was called 
to make a geological survey to the State of 
Massachusetts, which required about 5,000 
miles of travel, in an open wagon, at a rate 
not greater than from 20 to 30 miles per day, 
and very severe bodily exertion in climbing 
mountains, and in breaking, trimming, and 
transporting more than 5,000 rocks and min¬ 
erals. I was usually employed from sunrise 
to ten o’clock at night, and little interruption. 
Yet during all my wanderings I drank not one 
drox) of alcohol. And I found myself more 


(1) E. Baines, Esq., M.P. 



THE PILLAE OF EXPERIENCE. 201 

capable of exertion and fatigue than in former 
years, when I was in the habit of taking occa¬ 
sionally stimulating drinks.*" 

Mr. S. C. Hall, a well-known author, says, 
“ I live by the labor of my brain, and can tes¬ 
tify that since I have become a teetotaler I 
have had an increase of intellectual power, 
and can work three times longer than when I 
indulged even moderately in the use of strong 
drinks.” 

Side by side with these statements we may 
place the experience of hundreds of ministers 
of all denominations, who have found by prac¬ 
tical experience that they can perform the 
various duties of their calling with far greater 
comfort to themselves, and also without the 
feeling of "'Mondayishness,'' which so frequently 
afflicts those who, by the aid of the ‘ strange 
fire,’ minister in the sanctuary. 

The Lancet, in an article headed ‘ The Ha¬ 
bitual Use of Alcohol,’ says :—“It is admitted 
that for a man whose object is to do an occa¬ 
sional feat of mind or body— e. g., the chess¬ 
player or the prize-fighter—the right thing is 
to abstain entirely from alcohol. But for 
most people, whose business is not to do feats 
occasionally, but common work constantly 
and cheerfully and for the longest possible 


202 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

time, the right thing may he to take a moderate 
quantity. Thh has not yet been proved, but it 
is quite conceivable ; and vre are ready to pay 
as much heed to the opinion of serious and 
unbiassed physicians in this matter as to that 
of chemists and physiologists. Whatever the 
truth on this point, it is a matter of satisfac¬ 
tion that there is an important concurrence of 
weighty opinion in favor of extreme modera-' 
tion ; that whereas the question used to he between 
much alcohol and little, the question now is between 

VERY LITTLE and NONE AT ALL. 

“ There is no medical man now with a repu¬ 
tation to lose who would venture an apology 
for the habitual use of more than a very little 
alcohol, and this in a very diluted form. The 
injuriousness of the habitual use of alcohol in 
any but the smallest quantities, and these well 
diluted, is a point on which chemists, physio¬ 
logists, and physicians are all agreed. It is to 
be inferred from what the chemists have already 
established, that the great thing that the system 
does with alcohol is to effect its removal as soon 
as possible. If the quantity is not excessive, its 
removal is probably complete ; if it is excessive, 
some is left in the substance of the brain, the 
liver, the kidneys, &c. The physiologists, 
again, tell us that the smallest quantity of alcohol 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


203 


takes somewhat from the strength of the muscles, 
from the ability to endure extremes of temp¬ 
erature,/rom the clearness of the head and activ- 
ity of the mind. And, as physicians, we know 
how soon the immediate use of alcohol tells 
against the body, encasing it with a layer of 
fat or lard, destructive of all fineness of out¬ 
line, either of feature or figure ; and, worse 
than this, causing the deposit of fat or oil in 
the fine structures of the internal organs—the 
tubes of the kidneys, the fibres of the heart, 
the cells of the brain and liver—those organs, 
be it observed, in which chemists have detected 
the residue of alcohol not removed by the 
excretory organs. We think it a most signifi¬ 
cant fact, one that has not been sufficiently 
considered, that the organs in which alcohol 
is found, after being tak^n in large quantities 
and only partially eliminated, are the very 
organs whose structure is known to suffer 
from the use of it, and the impairment of which 
lands so many drinkers in Bright’s disease, 
heart disease, delirium tremens, paralysis, and 
hob-nail liver. The conversion of fine struc¬ 
tures such as gland-cells or muscular fibres, 
into fat, seems to be one of the natural ways 
in which, in process of time, organization 
deteriorates, and life declines. It is a change 


204 THE FOUB PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

wliich we properly associate with age, but it 
is strihiugiy favored in many jjersons by what 
would be regarded as a very moderate use of 
our stronger beers or of ardent spirits. Alcohol 
seems to do the work of time.^' 

8. The influence of abstinence is for good, while 
that of drinking is for evil. 

One of the most difficult things we have to 
do, is to convince the people that a religious 
profession is not proof against the insidious 
power of the drink. Notwithstanding the re¬ 
cord which tells of the fall of Noah, Lot, and 
others, men will persist in trying to be wise 
above that which is written. Be assured of 
this one thing, strong drink is no respecter of 
persons. Experience teaches plainly, that those 
only are safe who keep it out of the body. 
Regeneration being a moral change, does not, 
nor can annul the relations of matter—we 
continue just as susceptible to the action of 
fire, salt, cold, &c., after conversion as before. 
If the Christian puts his finger in the fire, it 
wiU be burnt just the same as if he were an 
infidel. Alcohol, as a physical agent, acts by 
certain fixed laws upon the physical body, and 
does not alter its properties to suit the mis¬ 
taken notions of the most devout believer in 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


205 


ChristeTidom, as he will soon find, if it is placed 
in the body. 

The efficacy of temperance principles is 
clearly demonstrated by a comparison of the 
working of the two opposite plans. On the 
one hand, the drinker, according to the most 
competent authorities, furnishes a large pro¬ 
portion of the crime, pauperism, disease, and 
death in the nation, and as surely as the vulture 
in her blood-stained nest hatches a vulture, so 
surely will this liquor traffic and the drinking 
customs of the people continue to “hatch 
mischief,” far beyond the power of the human 
mind to describe ; but in this guilt, let it be 
remembered, abstainers do not at all share ; and 
it is no small consolation to be free from the 
responsibility, especially if Dr. Harris is to be 
the witness, who says that “ Those who have 
tempted, and they who have embraced temptation, 
are the two classes which comprise all the 
pollution in the world ; as such, the besom of 
destmction shall sweep them together into 
one place, as the refuse of sin, the nuisance 
and leavings of creation.”(l) This, after all, 
is but another illustration of the old proverb, 
“ The will of God grinds late, but it grinds to 
powder.” Beautifully also does Mrs. Ellis 
“ Great Teacher.” 

18 



206 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

enforce the same truth when she says, “ What¬ 
ever tends to impair the innocence of woman 
—to cast suspicion on her smile, or make her 
purity a jest; whatever throws a shadow, how¬ 
ever slight, upon her name, that is the rain 
which beats upon the bosom of the lily—the 
rude, ungentle hand which crushes the light 
butterfly—the storm which levels to the 
ground the golden grain—the frost of autumn 
which steals upon the summer’s flower ; that 
is the first blight, after the touch of which she 
can never be the same again.” 

And how often has strong drink done so 
and even more. One has said, “ It must needs 
be that offences come, but woe unto the man 
by whom the offence cometh.” Rather give 
us the innocence that shrinks from the touch 
of vice. 

On the other hand, just so far as people are 
induced to abstain, all the evils referred to in 
connection with the drinkers have been and 
continue to be lessened. This has been done 
by inducing them to forsake ‘ the road that 
leads to death,’ hence it has come to pass that 
morality, order, and happiness, have increased. 
With this the abstainer shares, and rejoices. 

“ It is sometimes good to be content with 
doing little ; the great and splendid occasions 


THE PILLAR CTF EXPERIENCE. 207 

in which a man can benefit his country are 
few; the humble duties by which her benefit 
may be advanced are of daily occurrence; 
such, among’ others, is the duty of example; 
it is not enough to ascertain that actions be 
innocent as to ourselves, they must he innocent 
as to the effect they prod uce upon others; the 
consequences of some levity or omission, to 
you may be unimportant, but they are not 
unimportant to those who are guilty of the 
same thing because you are, and will be guilty 
of it, with far other talents, other habits, and 
other dispositions than yourself.”(l) 

The omission to act when duty calls, is as 
wrong as a wicked action. . “ Inasmuch as ye 
did it not,’' says the Saviour ; just upon the 
same principle as we should say that a man 
was an unfeeling creature, if he saw a child in 
the river drowming, and did not do what he 
could to rescue it. Shall we be innocent if we 
coolly look on while thousands are perishing 
in this “ gulf of ruin ?” Nay, verily, for “ when 
evil abounds, let none vainly imagine that by 
loudly lamenting the general depravity, he 
can compound for personal repentance and 
effort.” 

We are quite aware, to quote the w^ords of 


(1) Kev. Sydney Smith. 



208 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANC^. 

Lyttoii Buhver, that ‘'if you annouuce a dis¬ 
covery by wliicb men may destroy life (with an 
Armstrong gun, for instance) society will call 
you a great man, and erect a monument to 
perpetuate your memory ; but if you announce 
anything that will prolong life, the same people 
will denounce you as a quack, and pull down 
their very houses to find bricks to pelt you 
with.” Hov/ true it is that “the discovery of 
some new dye will make men greater in public 
opinion, than if they show how to live the 
truth, and speak it.”(l) But ought it to be 
so, especially when we take into consideration 
the fact that the proper understanding of this 
question involves the best interests of man¬ 
kind, both for time and eternity? No! even 
for sc^-preservation it is the wisest course to 
abstain, since events of daily occurrence i:)lainly 
teach that intoxicating drinks are no respect¬ 
ers of persons, but that, from the highest to 
the lowest, as well as from the most learned to 
the most ignorant, all classes alike furnish 
proof that perfect safety can only be assured 
by perfect freedom from the drmk. In spite of 
all theories of moderation (falsely so called), 
all grades of men do fall who use the drink, 
while on the contrary, from the ranks of those 


(1^ Mrs. EUis. 



THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


209 


who abstain, men are constantly rising into 
goodness and usefulness. 

Another striking proof of the value of tem¬ 
perance principles is found in the fact, that 
the only real workers who are successful in 
diminishing drunkenness to any extent, are 
the total abstainers. Nor need we wonder at 
this, for they practice a principle which they 
have found by experience to be just the thing 
that meets the necessity of the case, and every 
success is an additional argument in favor of 
ultimate and universal triumph. 

9. Another of the advantages connected 
with the temperance movement is, that it 
naturally attaches itself to the true and the good 
wherever it may he found, and renders valuable 
help to everything conducive to the advance¬ 
ment of society in knowledge, happiness, or 
holiness. On the contrary, the direct ten¬ 
dency of intoxicating drinks is to dethrone 
reason, render the highest powers of man 
powerless, and thus gradually to extinguish 
the man and develop the brute. It thus be¬ 
comes a feeder to the depravity of man ; and 
as such is the cause of nine-tenths of the 
crime and misery which abound on every 
hand. This it does in virtue of the fact that 
“ Intemperance is the only vice that directly 


210 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

assails the citadel of human reason, and re¬ 
duces to idiotcy, by destroying the .]30\ver to 
choose between good and evil.” Reason would - 
lead us to expect that “That w^hich is in its' 
own nature evil, cannot by its legitimate in¬ 
fluence be productive of good ; that which has 
an immoral tendency will never promote mo¬ 
rality.” (1) But, alas, facts of every-day occur¬ 
rence compel us to acknowledge that many 
persons are far more willing to be governed 
by their feelings than by their judgment. We 
scarcely ever hope to succeed in convincing 
people that they don't like it, and yet, no one 
will attempt to dispute the fact which uni¬ 
versal experience demonstrates, viz., that it is 
physically impossible for mankind habitually 
to use intoxicating liquors without imminent 
danger of the formation of intemperate habits, 
especially wdien we find that the habitual use of 
these drinks “ strengthens the power of motives 
to do wrong, and weakens the power of motives 
to do right.”{'1) This is quite consistent with 
the teaching of science, for it has been demon¬ 
strated, that “ whatever tends to impair the 
functions of the brain, weakens the power of 
perception, and by consequence lessens the 
power of the impressions iiroduced.” “ If you 


(1) Styles on ‘The Stage.’ (2) Dr. Grindrod. 



THE PILLAE OF EXPERIENCE. 


211 


take the brain of an animal, or of a man, and 
put it into alcohol, that hardens and preserves 
it; it is a remarkable fact stated in the 
‘Psychological Journal,’ that the brains of 
drunkards are really hardened and dimin¬ 
ished.” And hence we find drink and crimes 
of the blackest dye go hand in hand together. 

(a) Temperance has invariably assisted in 
the progress of religion ; in many cases it has 
proved a kind of John the Baptist, preparing 
the way of the Lord. Well might the Rev. 
Hugh Stowell say in his lecture to young men, 
^‘Oh, that the millions spent in intoxicating 
liquors and criminal indulgences were saved 
from Satan and hell, and ponied into the 
channels which send forth the waters of life to 
irrigate and fertilize the boundlet^s wilderness 
of the world! Let Christendom rise to the 
standard of Christianity, and the infidel will 
be silenced, and the scoffer put to shame.” 

Look at the facts of the case. A Sunday 
school in Cornwall numbered three hundred 
and eighty children. Temperance principles 
were introduced, and in one year another 
school-room was built and seven hundred 
children added. 

A miner’s family of seven children, once 
running wild and ragged on tlie Sabbath- 


212 THE- rOTTE PILLARS OF THMPERANCE. 

wliile the father was at the ale-house, are now 
well attired, attend chapel and school, and hold 
family worship. Another family of nine, the 
father a smith, an excellent workman, with his 
children in rags and scarcely a book in the 
house, are now well dressed, sent to school, 
have Bibles and hymn books—parents attend 
the house of God regularly, and have houses of 
their own. 

In a district near Leeds, four hundred and 
eighty drunkards became reformed through 
temiDerance principles. Three hundred of 
whom “ added to temperance, godliness fifty 
became Sabbath school teachers, and upward 
of a thousand children joined the Sunday 
school ranks whose parents had forsaken the 
error of their way. 

Temperance has in this as in many other 
ways proved itself to be a 

(b) Handmaid to religion. From the earli¬ 
est history of the movement, this has been 
abundantly confirmed by statistics gathered 
from all parts of the country, and still more 
recently we may refer to the name of Mrs. 
Wightman, whose works entitled “Haste to 
the Bescue” and the “ Annals of the Eescued,” 
are full of facts of the most cheering character ; 
and perhaps still more strikingly is this truth 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


213 


illustrated by Mrs. Bayley, in her “ Bagged 
Homes, and how to Mend them.” In the 
midst of a district once vile and degraded, 
there now stands a place of worship capable 
of seating over one thousand people, with a 
church gathered together from the most un¬ 
likely material. During the week-days in the 
‘ Workmen’s Hall,’ many persons may be seen, 
“clothed and in their right mind,” standing 
monuments of the power of the temperance 
pledge to rescue the fallen.. 

“ I had the pleasure,” said an Independent 
minister the other day, “ of giving the right 
hand of fellowship to six reclaimed drunkards 
who were brought under the sound of. the 
Gospel, through the temperance society, in 
connexion with our place. 

The day of judgment will alone reveal the 
number who have thus been rescued from the 
paths of sin and led to the “Lamb of God.” 
A consistent life and conversation on the part 
of many such reclaimed ones, has been often 
largely blessed to numbers of their old pot 
companions, who, had it not been for this 
‘mighty lever,’ in all human probability might 
have gone down to a drunkard’s grave, and a 
drunkard’s doom. 

(c) Intemperancf has always been a hindrance 


214 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

to the progress of religion. On the one hand, 
it has presented the reception of the truth, and 
on the other, robbed the Church of its converts. 
From the day when it was said that ‘ the priest 
and the prophet have erred through strong 
drink,’ down to the present time, what tongue 
can tell or pen describe the ruin both to body 
and soul which these drinks have wrought ? 
Need we wonder that the following things were 
said at the clerical conference, held in London, 
in 1863. 

The Kev. Talbot Greaves, M.A., remarked, 
“Drunkenness is the champion of all other 
sins, and if it could but be slain, a host of sins 
would at once be put to flight. What victories 
would the Church of Christ then win, and 
what results would they, as ministers, reap 
from their long and sorrowful sowing time.” 

The Dean of Carlisle, Eev. F. Close, said, “ I 
believe that if there is one thing which can be 
proved more clearly than another, it is that if, 
for the love of the people and for the love of 
humanity, a man would only exercise a little 
self-denial in the matter of total abstinence, 
it would be one of the very best things he 
could do, both for his body and soul, as well 
as for his country.” 

The Eev. Thomas Hutton, M.A., rector of 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


215 


Stilton, remarked, “I am quite satisfied that 
England will never occupy the position which 
as a Christian country she ought to be in, till 
the great stumbling-block of drunkenness has 
been removed.” 

The Kev. Eobert Maguire, M. A., incumbent of 
Clerkenwell, remarked, “ If through the means 
of the total abstinence movement we can, by 
God’s help, bless some homes in our parishes, 
restore peace to some husband and wife, and 
give bread to some starving children, it is 
worth our while, as men, not to say as clergy¬ 
men, to assist in this great moral and social 
effort for doing good.” 

The Eev. H. J. Ellison, M. A., vicar of Wind¬ 
sor, said, We should all remember that this 
work is God’s work, and if w^e join in it with 
earnest and continued prayer, I have no doubt 
that before many years are past, the country, 
which by the exertions of its Christian men 
has got the great slavery question settled, will 
be also delivered from the curse which has so 
long rested on her brow of being a nation of 
drunkards.” 

“ We w'ere all comfortably clothed when my 
husband was a teetotaler,” said a woman to a 
temperance missionary. “ Yes,” said her son, 
who was listening, “ I used to go to the Sun- 


21G THE FOUR PILLARS OP TEMPERANCE. 

day school, but since father broke his pledge 
I have had no clothes to go in, and I don’t 
like to go in these!” Might not such cases be 
multiplied by thousands? 

The following, also written more than twenty 
years back, by a moderate drinker, also reveals 
a fearful state of things :— 

“ It is our settled conviction that more of 
our ministers and members have been degrad¬ 
ed by the sin of intemperance, than by any 
other ; we verily believe that this single sin is de¬ 
stroying more souls than all the ministers in 
Great Britain are instrumental in saving ’'— 
Wesleyan Chronicle. 

If only half this statement be true, what an 
awful fact for the consideration of all who are 
interested in the salvation of immortal souls. 
Can it be true Christians coldly stand by and 
look on? 

‘‘ Perhaps one of the most striking proofs in 
confirmation of this, is that of the ‘ Report to 
the General Assembly of the Church of Scot¬ 
land by their Committee for the Suppression of 
Intemperance, 31st May, 1849 ’—a volume of 
200 pages, containing returns relative to the 
social and religious condition of the 478 par¬ 
ishes of Scotland, furnished by the parish min¬ 
isters respectively. 


THE PILLAE OP EXPEEIENCE. 217 

The following facts are established by these 
returns:— 

First. —That the absence of public-houses in 
a district, or their extreme rarity, is accompa^ 
nied by an almost total absence of drinking^ and 
its results. 

Second. —That the presence of many public- 
houses is attended by the presence of much 
drinking, and its sequential evils. 

Third. —That the increase of public-houses, 
or other facilities for drinking, is followed by a 
proportionate increase of di-unkenness and 
debauchery. 

Fourth. —That the suppression, or decrease^ 
of public-houses or dram-shops, or the dimin¬ 
ishing by other means of the facilities for drink¬ 
ing, is followed by a corresponding improve¬ 
ment in the drinking habiiis and morals of the 
population.”(l) 

The Kev. K. H. Muir, the convener, in his 
report to the Assembly, thus admirably sums 
up the evidence :— 

“The returns made to your committee’s 
inquiries clearly prove that the irdemperance q, 
any neighborhood is uniformly proportionate to 
the number of its spirit licenses. So that, where- 
ever there are no public-houses, nor any shops 


(1) Dr. Lees’s Prize Essay. 

19 



218 THE FOUR HLLAES OE TEMPERANCE. 

for selling spirits, there ceases to be any in¬ 
toxication. The recklessly multiplying of what 
are thus evidently so many centres of a vicious 
influence cannot hut he regarded as a public ca-‘ 
lamity. It forces temptation upon the people 
at every step, and actually brings to bear upon 
them all the active efforts of an excessive com¬ 
petition in a lucrative trade, for stimulating 
their practice of a ruinous vice. Your com¬ 
mittee, therefore, strongly feel, and would 
respectfully submit, that the influence of na- 
tional customs, and the force of many outward 
circumstances, which lead to the formation and 
indulgence of intemperate habits, are indeed 
appalling, and do give to the vice of intemper¬ 
ance (so ruinous in itself) a very alarming pre¬ 
eminence among the social evils which call 
for anxious care on the part of the Church, in 
the use of means for their suppression.” 

Even after success has attended the efforts 
of the missionary, the minister and the Sunday 
school teacher, 

(n) Drink rohs the minister of the fruit of his 
labors. Says the Rev. Dr. Guthrie, “I have 
seen no less than ten clergymen with whom I 
have sat down at the Lord’s table, deposed 
through drink.” Rev. W. Jay, of Bath, says, 
“ in one month, not less than seven dissenting 


THE PILLAE OF EXPEEIENCE. 


219 


ministers came under my notice, who were 
suspended through intoxicating di'inks.” 

At the conference of Primitive Methodists, 
held at Sheffield, in 1862, the Rev. S. Antliffe 
said, that dui’ing the past year, their body had 
lost 1,800 members by death, but by expulsion, 
chiefly owing to intemperance^ between 3,000 
and 4,000. If this be tme of a denomination 
where nearly all the officers and members are 
teetotalers, what must be the aggregate ravages 
of strong drink in churches where the ministers 
and officials sustain and sanction the di’inking 
usages of the world ? 

Rev. W. R. Baker.—“ That four out of five 
of the cases of church discijfiine have occurred 
through drink; that from the same cause, 
thousands forsake the pale of the Church 
yearly.” 

This will be strikingly illustrated if we look at 

(e) The influence of drink on the Sunday 
school :— 

The following extract of a letter from a 
Sabbath School teacher to Thos. Beggs, Esq., 
author of an “Essay on Juvenile Depravity,” 
speaks for itself:—“ The class I was in con¬ 
sisted of about seventeen or eighteen scholars, 
and I am sure that twelve of them became sots. 
Some remain so to this day, a pest to the neigh- 


220 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

borliood, a disgTace to the borough, and a 
trouble to their families. It has been, un¬ 
fortunately, my lot to sit, at one time or 
another, in the tap-room with eight or nine of 
my former fellow-scholars.” He adds, “ My 
own intemperate habits were formed during 
the time I was a teacher in the school.” 
And still further, “ Oh, sir, if Sunday 
school superintendents and teachers could 
only see a small portion of the immense amount 
of their labors which are utterly, and I fear 
for ever, frustrated by this foe to human 
improvement (strong drink), I feel satisfied 
that the same love which induces them to 
teach the scholar would induce them to bid 
an eternal farewell to that article which has so 
long, and still continues, to lay waste so 
much of their labors.” No language of mine 
can add weight to the arguments suggested by 
such facts. 

“Between 4000 and 5000 (chiefiy young) 
persons, have been counted entering one 
house vrith Tea-gardens adjoining, on a Lord’s 
day evening.”— Anti-Bacchus. 

“ On a Sunday evening at ten o’clock, 5000 
persons were found at a Tea-garden, in the 
state of (what is commonly called) drunken¬ 
ness.— T. Beggs’s Essay. 


THE PILLAE OF EXPEEIENCE. 


221 


“ Three youths, members of Bible Classes^ 
were stopped hear ‘ The Eagle Tavern,’ and 
rebuked for boisterously singing, while in a 
state of intoxication, the hymn, ‘ There is a 
happij land, far, far away.* They had learned 
it for singing at a chapel on the following 
day.”— An Eye- Witness. 

“ On the morning of the New Year, while 
standing at a corner of the public market, in 
afbout half-an-hour, we counted 14 boys, mere 
children, passing, under the influence of in¬ 
toxicating drink.”— Mr. McDonald, City Mis¬ 
sionary, Aberdeen. 

“ Out of eight Teachers seven were ruined 
through drink.”— Rev. IF. Wight, B.A. 

We thus see that the work of education is 
both undone and retarded. 

‘‘ Out of 100 children in our Ragged Schools^ 
99 are the children of drunken parents.”— De. 
Gutheie. 

The Sunday School Teachers* Magazine, Nov., 
1846, states “ that out of 100 boys taken from 
a school register, 99 had become drunkards.” 

(r) The influence of drink on the work of the 
missionary. Although we are constantly being 
reminded by facts around us of the close con¬ 
nection between strong drink and irreligion, 
it is not often that we have the opportunity of 


222 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

proving so clearly as we now have, that this 
is not a thing peculiar to our own beloved 
country, but alas! true of other lands ; and 
that everywhere and in proportion to its pre¬ 
valence, drink sheds the same blighting influ¬ 
ence upon the operations of all those moral 
and religious efforts which are in operation to 
elevate and save the people, testifying that it 
is still true, as Mr. Buxton remarked years 
ago, that this is “ the mightiest of all the forceS 
that clog the progress of good.” Even should 
tJie missionary be successful in gaining con¬ 
verts and starting the manifold means of 
civilization, the fact that the drink is as a rule 
introduced at the same time, proves a barrier 
of no ordinary magnitude, and every now and 
then evidence arises from the most unlikely 
sources, teaching the Christian churches (if 
they would be willing to learn) that, until 
they as a body set their faces against the 
manufacturiug, using, and sending strong 
drinks with the missionaries, we stand in 
danger of realising in aU their fearful truthful¬ 
ness, the emphatic words of the late Arch¬ 
deacon Jefferies, “that our missionaries 
(through this cause) may become to the 
people among whom they go a curse instead 
of a blessing while if, on the contrary, they 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


223 


set the example of temperance, and frown 
down the liquor traffic with all its abomin¬ 
ations, they may reasonably expect to realise 
ample reward for their labors. It would not 
be so much to be wondered at, that when a 
revival of religion takes place (as at Jamaica, 
for instance, recorded in the Wesleyan mis¬ 
sionary notices for May, 1861) the places of 
worship become w ell attended, and a spirit of 
earnest religious devotion is manifested; 
among the fruits too we find it stated “ that 
open immorality disappears ,—public houses are 
closed” such a state of things only being 
another illustration of the truth of a remark 
so often made, that “ the struggle of the school, 
the library, and the church, with the gin-palace 
and the beer-shop, is but a development of 
the war between heaven and hell.” 

We have been led into these observations 
by perusing, quite by accident, a few numbers 
of the Wesleyan missionary notices, and while 
we cannot but rejoice that so much good still 
continues to crown the labors of the faithful 
men who go forth as it were with their lives 
in their hands, to rescue their felfcw men from 
degradation, ruin, and woe, still we cannot 
help regretting that the teachings of history 
and past experience have not been incorpo- 


224 THE rOTJR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

rated by tbern into their movements, and that, 
as a body, they are not yet found advocating 
and enforcing the claims of true temperance ; 
inasmuch as it is again demonstrated plainly 
by them, as well as by the united testimony of 
ministers and missionaries at home, that 
teetotalism is a mighty lever for removing a 
great stumbling-block out of the v^ay on the 
one hand, as well as handmaid for the fur¬ 
therance of the Redeemer’s kingdom on the 
other. Under these circumstances we think 
we cannot do better than present a few ex¬ 
tracts from the periodical referred to, bearing 
in mind, however, that they form only a part 
of -the letters sent home by the missionaries 
whose names they bear, and that of course 
they have no immediate connection the one 
with the other, beyond the fact of their repre¬ 
senting the same body of Christians. 

1. Obstacles in the loay cf progress. —Rev. J. 
Calvert, Figi. “This place has always been, 
trying, but is so now especially, with the grog 
shops lately opened.'’ November, ’60. 

Rev. W. Impey, Albany. “ It so happened 
we met the chief returning from a beer party. 
He, however, was too much under the influ¬ 
ence of the abominable compound to make an 
interview very agreeable to me.” Feb., ’61. 


THE PILLAR OP EXPERIENCE. 


225 


Rev. J. Lingden, Kaffraria, speaking of a 
wealtliy native, says, “He attended a large 
beer party on Sabbath, and -was speared to 
death.” February. 

Rev. J. T. Daniel, Bechuana Country, “ while 
on his preaching tours, describes a place where 
two women, intoxicated, quarrelled, fought, 
fell over a precipice, and were smashed to 
pieces.” August, 

Rev. J. France, Western Africa, describing 
the execution of a man, says “ that a calabash 
of palm wine and two tumblers of rum were 
given him, and he was then decapitated.” 
September. A strange comment upon the 
oft-quoted text—“Give strong drink to him 
that is ready to perish.” 

2. It robs the Mission Church of converts. 
Rev. W. Berry, Natal : “After the morning 
service a person who had once been a member 
of our society, and highly respected by all who 
knew him, but who had fallen through drink, 
came to him,” &c. December. 

Rev. W. C. Holden, Queen’s Town, states 
three facts in connection with the Mission. 
“ 1st. That it is about eight years since it was 
established. 2nd. The sure and steady man¬ 
ner in which civilisation followed; and 3rd, 


226 THE FOUK PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

that although a few years ago the Tambookie 
Kaffirs had not become victims of intoxicating 
drinks, nor would spend their money to pur¬ 
chase them, now they drink to an alarming ex¬ 
tent^ so that the number of hi thy, debauched, 
and riotous natives about the spirit shops is 
truly awful, and it is fast exterminating the 
race, as well as grafting the worst forms of 
European vice upon the native stock.” Octo¬ 
ber. 

Who is responsible for this change ? may 
well be asked. Now drink and missions, then 
sobriety and heathenism. 

3. Temperance and Revivals close the grog 
shops. 

Bev. T. Fox, Labrador : “ The Methodists 
here strictly observe the Sabbath, and also lead 
the van in the Temperance cause.” January. 

We wish we could say the same of them at 
home. 

Bev. W. Tyson, after a general description 
of the revival in Jamacia, says, as one of the 
results, that “ the rum shops have been entirely 
deserted.” January. 

Bev. J. Feet, Bathurst, West Afiica ; “ One 
who was a local preacher and leader for many 
years, fell into sin, and so far forgot the Lord 
as to open a grog shop^ and whom I have re- 


THE PILLAE OF EXPEKIENCE. 227 

peatedly warned of his danger, and exhorted 
to ‘ cease to do evil,’ has now, by the blessing 
of God, abandoned that questionable mode of 
gaining a livelihood^ and determines to ‘ sin 
no more.’ ” January. 

This is a practical application of a very re¬ 
markable passage in John Wesley’s “Sermon 
on the IJse of Money,” vol. ii., p, 121 :— 

“Neither may we gain by hurting our neigh¬ 
bor in his body. Therefore we may not sell 
anything which tends to impair health. Such 
is eminently all that liquid fire, commonly 
called drams, or spirituous liquors. It is true> 
those may have a place in medicine ; they may 
be of use in some bodily disorder (although 
there would rarely be occasion for them, were 
it not for the unskilfullness of the practi¬ 
tioner). Therefore, such as prepare and sell 
them only for this end may keep their con¬ 
science clear. But who are they who prepare 
them only for this end? Do you know ten 
such distillers in England ? Then excuse these. 
But all who sell them in the common way, to 
any that will buy, are poisoners-general. They 
murder his Majesty’s subjects by wholesale, 
neither does their eye pity or sjiare. They 
drive them to hell, like sheep; and what is 
their gain ? Is it not the blood of these men ? 


228 THE FOUR FILLARS OF TEMFERANCE. 

Who then would envy their large estates and 
sumptuous palaces ? A curse is in the midst 
of them : the curse of God cleaves to the 
stones, the timber, the furniture of them. The 
curse of God is in their gardens, their walks, 
their groves ; a fire that burns to the nether¬ 
most hell. Blood, blood is there : the foun¬ 
dation, the walls, the floor, the roof, are stained 
with blood! And canst thou hope, O thou man 
of blood! though thou art ‘ clothed in scarlet 
and fine linen, and farest sumptuously every 
day,’ canst thou hope to deliver down the 
fields of blood to the third generation ? Not 
so ; for there is a God in heaven ; therefore 
thy name shall be rooted out. Like as those 
whom thon hast destroyed, body and soul, ‘ thy 
memorial shall perish with thee.’ ” 

In his ‘Eules of the Society of the People 
called Methodists,’ he also says :— 

“ It is expected of all who continue therein, 
that they shall continue to evidence their de¬ 
sire of salvation—first, by doing no harm, by 
avoiding evil of every kind—especially that 
which is most generally practiced, such as 
drunkenness, buying and selling spirituous 
liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of ex¬ 
treme necessity.” 

Finally, as he legislated so he executed ; for 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


229 


in liis ‘ Journal/ March 12, 1743, he records 
that when visiting the society at Newcastle, he 
“ excluded from the society seventeen persons 
for drunkenness, and two for retailing spirituous 
liquors.” 

Would that all preachers were as faithful. 
Such teaching would be considered by some 
very strong doctrine,. yet no stronger, as we 
have seen, than Wesley himself employed. 

Kev. W. Hodgson, Clarendon, Jamaica. 
“The work of God continues to prosper. 
Amongst others are some of the most aban¬ 
doned sinners, drunkards and the like. Two 
rum shops have been closed, and those who con¬ 
tinue such places declare they must close also, 
as rum cannot be sold. These establishments, 
like the gin-palaces in London, have long been 
the bane of the Island.” March. 

Kev. G. Blencowe, Natal, speaking of the 
progress of trade as a result of Mission work, 
says that “ Mr. Cato, a shipowner, showed 
him the total of four years’ freight, amount¬ 
ing to more than £27,000, of which there has 
been no powder, guns, nor spirits, but all hon¬ 
est, useful manufactures.” May. 

Such are some additional facts serving to 
illustrate the importance of urging upon all 
who have any influence with our missionary 
20 


230 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

institutions, the necessity for a determined 
hostility to this great enemy of man. 

Let us have one or two more testimonies. 
The Rev. Mr. Ellis said, “ Since the introduc¬ 
tion of Christianity to the Sandwich Islands 
by missionaries, there is no means which the 
enemies of morals and religion have employed 
more extensively and perseveringly, for the 
purpose of counteracting the influence of 
Christian instruction, and corrupting and de¬ 
grading the people, than the importation of 
spirituous liquors ; and no means of evil have 
been employed with more injurious effects.” 
The Rev. J. Williams said, “ In my absence 
a trading captain brought a small cask of 
spirits ashore, and sold it to the natives. 
This revived their dormant appetite, and like 
pent-up waters the disposition burst forth, 
and, with the impetuosity of a resistless tor¬ 
rent, carried the people before it, so that they 
appeared maddened with infatuation.” Arch¬ 
deacon Jeffreys said, “ Among the converts to 
Christianity, many had fallen through strong 
drink ; for when once the natives broke caste 
and became Christians, they were no longer 
restrained from the use of strong drinks, and 
they became far worse than if they had never 
embraced Christianity. For one really con- 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 231 

verted Christian, as the fruits of missionary 
labor, the drinking practices of the English 
had made one thousand drunkards!” 

With these things before us, need we be 
surprised that at a conference of ministers at 
Manchester, the following declaration was 
unanimously adopted ? and since then it has 
been signed by upwards of 2000 ministers of 
all denominations:— 

‘‘We the undersigned, ministers of the Gos¬ 
pel, are convinced by personal observation 
within our own sphere and authentic testi¬ 
mony from beyond it, that the traffic in intoxi¬ 
cating liquors as drink for man is the immediate 
cause of most of the crime and pauperism, 
and much of the disease and insanitj'’, that 
afflict our land ; that everywhere, and in pro¬ 
portion to its prevalence, it deteriorates the 
moral character of the people, and is the chief 
outward obstruction to the progress of the 
Gospel ; that these are not its accidental at¬ 
tendants, but its natural fruits ; that the 
benefit, if any, is very small in comparison 
with the bane ; that all schemes of regulation 
and restriction, however good so far as they 
go, fall short of the nation’s need and the 
nation’s duty ; and that therefore, on the 
obvious principle of destroying the evil which 


232 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

cannot be controlled, the wisest course for 
those who fear God and regard man is to en¬ 
courage every legitimate effort for the entire 
suppression of the trade, by the power of the 
national will, and through the form of a legis¬ 
lative enactment.” 

(g) Influence of Temperance on Home Mis¬ 
sions. 

“ Saltaire : near Bradford, in Yorkshire. 

1. Area: About half a mile each way. 

2. Population: About 3000 souls. 

3. Employment : But one man, the registrar 
of marriages, living in the place, who is not 
employed by Salt and Co., as mechanic, joiner, 
warehouseman, or mill-hand. 

4. Habits: Strictly honest, industrious and 
sober. Drunkards and drunkenness rare. 
Grime trifling. Pauperism almost unknown. 
About twelve aged persons have been in the 
receipt of parochial relief. 

5. How long has this been the case ? About 
ten years. 

The condition of the people is first class, as 
working people. I took a walk up and down 
the streets, looked into many of the houses, 
in all of which cleanliness and comfort pre¬ 
vailed. The women were all well-dressed 
and tidy. 


THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


233 


The average attendance at the Baptist 
Chapel, built by Mr. Salt, is 500 adults ; at 
the Wesleyan Chapel, in Shipley, above 500. 
Many go to Shipley Church, and the Baptist 
and Primitive Methodist Chapels in Shipley. 

There is a Savings’ Bank in the place, with 
deposits to the amount of nearly i£l,000. Very 
few of the men are in the habit of going even 
the short distance to Shipley, for the purpose 
of getting intoxicating drink.” 

“ In the village of Scorton, near Lancaster, 
there are but about two families who do not 
regularly attend the Wesleyan chapel. The 
late George Fish wick. Esq. (a man of great 
wealth and influence), had a strong abhorrence 
of liquor-shops, and conducted his own house 
on strictly temperance principles. He encour¬ 
aged the working people by all means to ab¬ 
stain from spending their ‘money for that 
which is not bread.’ As the village was not 
wholly in Mr. Fishwick’s hands, two attempts 
were made to establish a public-house ; but the 
people would neither go nor send to it; so it was 
soon closed, and the village is free from the 
nuisance to this day. Now, what is the state 
of this village ? Pauperism is almost unknown. 
There has only been one case of crime before the 
magistrates for twenty years, and then the whole 


234 FOUR PILLARS OP TEMPERANCE. 

village felt itself disgraced, though the breaker 
of the law was a stranger among them. If a 
policeman happens to pass through the village, the 
children run out to look at him as a curiosity. 
There is a Wesleyan day school, of which the 
people make good use, and a large and well- 
conducted Sunday school. The chapel is 
filled with devout and attentive hearers, their 
easy circumstances being plainly manifest in 
their clothing and general appearance. Whai 
Scorton is without a public-house, thousands of 
villages will soon become when we get the Per- 
missive BillP (1) 

10. Drink has been the curse of all classes. 

Mr. Charles Buxton, the brewer, has admi¬ 
rably expressed this fact. 

“ It would not be too much to say, that if aU 
drinking of fermented liquors could be done 
away, crime of every kind would fall to a 
fourth of its present amount, and the whole 
tone of moral feeling in the lower orders might be 
indefinitely raised. Not only does this vice 
produce all kinds of wanton mischief, but it 
also has a negative effect of gTeat importance. 
It is the mightiest of all*the forces that clog 
the progress of good. It is in vain that every 
engine is set to work that philanthropy can 
(1) Dr Lees’s “Condensed Argument.” 



THE PILLAB OF EXPERIENCE. 


235 


devise, when those whom we seek to benefit 
are habitually tampering with their faculties 
of Eeason and Will—soaking their brains 
with beer, or inflaming them with ardent 
spiidts. The struggle of the School, the 
Library, and the Church, all united against 
the beer-house and the gin-palace, is but one 
development of the war between heaven and 

hell.It is, in short, intoxication that 

fills our gaols. It is intoxication that fills our 
lunatic asylums. And it is intoxication that 
fills our workhouses with poor. Were it not 
for this one cause, pauperism would be nearly 
extinguished in England.” 

Liverpool and Manchester compared.—The 
POWER OF Magistrates. —The magistrates of 
Manchester have, for several years, acted on 
the principle of considering the necessities of 
the locality in granting licenses, and the com¬ 
parison between the results in the two towns 
is very significant:— 

Cases of Indict- 

Population. Public Beer drunk & Assaults, able 
bouses, shops, disorderly. Assaults. 

Manchester 357,979 484 1826 3,206 2114 53 

Liverpool 443,938 1704 918 13,914 3266 167 

The increase in the cases of drunkenness, in 
the year 1863 over the year 1861, was, in 
Liverpool alone, 4,082, while the whole of the 



236 THE FOUR PILLARS OF TEMPERANCE. 

remainder of tlie country exhibited a decrease 
of about 100. In indictable offences in the 
year 1863, Manchester showed 523 less than in 
1862, while Liverpool showed 456 more. The 
cost of police during 1863 was, for Manchester, 
i£'39,476, for Liverpool, 1B69,056. 

“ To what extent does this vice prevail ? It 
prevails more or less in all classes and in every 
rank. Not in the highest circles in the gross¬ 
est form, for it is no longer fashionable to get 
openly ‘drunk’ and boast of it—but in its 
modified ‘ disguise,’ its preparatory stages, it 
is not at all infrequent. Amongst literary 
men we have, in our time, known many ex¬ 
amples. Several of the very first writers of 
the day are, or have been, victims of alcoholic 
or morphinic excitement. The past gener¬ 
ation yields a terrible catalogue —Porson, 
Byron, Hazlitt, Campbell, Coleridge, Lamb, 
Jeffreys, AVilson, Hook, Hogg, Scott, Thom, 
Carlton, Maginn, Talfourd, Jerrold, and 
many others. At the Universities, both of 
^Britain and Ireland, drinking and its kindred 
vices of dissipation and gambling are notori¬ 
ously common. In the army and navy, wit¬ 
ness some recent disgraceful escapades.”(1) 

“ I say boldly that no man living, who uses 


(1) Dr. Lees’s Prize Essay. 



THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


237 


intoxicating drinks, is free from the danger of 
at least occasional, and, if of occasional, ulti¬ 
mately of habitual excess. I have myself known 
such frightful instances of persons brought 
into captivity to the habit, that there seems 
to be no character, position, or circumstances 
that free men from danger. I have known 
many young men of the finest promise, led by 
the drinking habit into vice, ruin, and early 
death. I have known such become virtual 
parricides. I have known many tradesmen 
whom it has made bankrupt. I have known 
Sunday scholars whom it has led to prison. 
I have known Teachers, and even Superinten¬ 
dents whom it has dragged down to profligacy. 
I have known Ministers of religion, in and out 
of the establishment, of high academic honors, 
of splendid eloquence, nay, of vast usefulness, 
whom it has fascinated, and hurried over the 
precipice of public infamy, with their eyes 
open, and gazing with horror on their fate. 1 
have known men of the strongest and clearest 
intellect, and of vigorous resolution, whom it 
has made weaker than children and fools. 1 
have known gentlemen of refinement and taste, 
whom it has debased into brutes. / have 
known poets of high genius, whom it has 
bound in a bondage worse than the gaUeys, 


the four pillars of temperance. 

and ultimately cut short their days. I have 
known statesmen, lawyers, and judges, whom 
it has killed. I have known kind husbands 
and fathers, whom it has turned into mon¬ 
sters. I ham known honest men w^hom it has 
made villains. I have known elegant and 
Christian ladies whom it has converted into 
bloated sots.”(l) 

Alcohol is Doomed.— The temperance re¬ 
formers have a very difficult task to perform. 
They have undertaken to hew down and up¬ 
root the great and ancient tree. It is a devil- 
planted and devil-tended tree. It has existed 
and flourished for thousands of years. It has 
struck its roots deep dowm into the very heart 
of civilized life ; it is noui’ished by the rich 
blood of thousands of annual victims : it is 
w^atered with the copious tears of numberless 
wives and children, mothers and sisters, widows 
and orphans ; it is waving its death-bearing 
branches far and wide over the families of our 
fatherland ; it enchains the senses by its nar¬ 
cotic influence ; it drugs the reason to torpi- 
tude* by its intoxicating fruit; it throws up the 
reins to the maddened passions to rush head¬ 
long on their unbridled course ; it gathers 
under its pestilential shade tens of thousands 


(1) E. Baines, M.P. 



THE PILLAR OF EXPERIENCE. 


239 


of its deluded victims, from the respectable 
moderate drinker to the besotted drunkard. 
"What a task have they undertaken to perform! 
This tree of death is not only rooted with vast 
strength, but it is defended by thousands in¬ 
terested in its existence ; it is protected with 
great vigilance by a host of malsters, distillers, 
brewers and publicans ; it is favored by a 
government that draws a vast revenue from its 
produce ; it is excused by myriads of moderate 
drinkers, saints, and sinners, men and women, 
old and young. “Pull it down!” say these 
men in scorn ; “ as well might a few idle boys 
attempt to demolish the fortifications of a 
strong city by pelting them with thistledown 
and feathers, as you try to abolish the use of 
alcohol by your teetotalism. Pull it down 1 
Would you attempt to effect what Christianity 
has failed to accomplish, and the Church is 
unable to perform? What presumption! It 
is almost profane to attempt such a work by 
your means. You should preach the Gospel, 
seek to convert men’s souls by the truth, and 
get them full of the Spirit of God, in order to 
convert sots into sober men!” Such arc the 
opinions of some of our pious opponents. We 
pronounce this to be offensive cant; it consists 
in lamentations and whinings about an evil 


240 THE FOUE PILL AES OF TEMPEEANCE. 

wliicli the objectors do not strenuously strive 
to remove. But in spite of such sneers the 
teetotalers will go on with their work. With 
the brawny arm of firm resolve ; with the 
keen axe of truth ; with the untiring persever¬ 
ance of genuine benevolence ; with the daunt¬ 
less courage of duty, they will go on, making 
the whole region ring with their repeated, 
strokes, until this IJpas tree trembles and 
crashes to the ground amidst the rejoicings of 
humanity. “A consummation devoutly to be 
wished,” sneer the opponents of the temper¬ 
ance movement.—“A consummation sure to 
come’' respond the earnest workers in the 
glorious cause. For depend upon it, sooner 
or later, this giant evil must fall. It is con¬ 
demned by Keason and Science, Scripture and 
Experience ; all the main props of its support 
have been proved to be unsound. Why should 
it be allowed any longer to exist ? Resolve 
then, that, God helping you, not a single stone 
he left unturned for the final overthroio of the 
greatest enemy of our race^ and so hasten the 
time “when every knee shall how and every 
longue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 
glory of God the Father,” 






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